Transcript Document 7228401

Engaging Computing:
Makin’ It Real
for Kids and Undergrads
Fred G. Martin
University of Massachusetts Lowell
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Overview
• Computational design primitives
• Projects/applications/ideas for
– Elementary school
– Teenagers
– High school and college
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P-Brick/Handy Board/LEGO
RCX Brick/Cricket
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Computational Jewelry
• Worked in 4th grade classroom in
Smithfield, RI
• With Mary Lurgio, a teacher
accomplished with project-based
learning
• And Denis Coffey, an engineer &
educator
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Computational Jewelry
• The idea: build necklaces that
would perform personality
correlations
• Inspired by MIT Media Lab
“Thinking Tag” project (Rick
Borovoy)
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Four Questions
• Are you a girl?
• Are you left-handed?
• Do you have pets?
• Are you 9 yrs. old or younger?
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Boolean Algebra
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Implementation
Little expansion board
Goes your lapel;
Has outputs for 7 lights
Wear the Cricket on your wrist,
Aim it at your friend and they can
Communicate with infrared
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Logo Programming
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Computational Jewelry
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Computational Jewelry
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Computational Jewelry
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UML DESIGNCAMP
• 1 month of week-long designoriented classes for teenagers
• Shipwreck Electronics,Kinetic
Sculpture, Sea-Mobiles, Electronics
& Music, etc
• Created and run by Douglas Prime,
www.designcamp.org
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Animatronics Camp
QuickTime™ and a
Motion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Animatronic Dog (2 of 3)
QuickTime™ and a
Motion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Animatronics Dog (3 of 3)
QuickTime™ and a
Motion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Happy Halloween!
QuickTime™ and a
Motion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Animatronics Camp
QuickTime™ and a
Motion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Robot Contests
(HS & College)
• Botball
• Egghunt
• Trinity Fire-Fighting
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Botball
• National design contest for middle
and HS kids run by KIPR.org
• 13 regional contests & 1 national
• Focuses on kids doing the
engineering themselves
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Egghunt
QuickTime™ and a
Motion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Trinity Fire-Fighting
QuickTime™ and a
Motion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Big Teams & Big Robots
• Big team is > 3 people
• Big robot is too big to step on
• Such as…
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Power Wheels!
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When it’s big
• Technical integration is hard
• Team dynamics can be hard
• Physics matters!
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The Steering
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Motors Need Many Amps
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Demos Don’t Always Work
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Calcomp Pen Plotters
QuickTime™ and a
Motion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Student Work
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Spiral
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Midpoint Fractal
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Random Walk 1
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Random Walk 2
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Design Process
• Run the program a bunch of times,
capturing output to named files
• Preview files on-screen, choosing
“nice ones” to print
• Then we thought…
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Each one is an original
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Portrait Engravings
• Work done by Karthik Ramanathan
• Roland EGX-300 Engraving Machine— a
computer-controlled Dremel tool
• Speaks HPGL just like the pen plotters
• Convert bitmap image into grid of
variable depth drill hits
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Portrait Engravings
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In Closing…
• Writing code is fun
• Writing code that controls stuff is
fun
• Writing code that controls stuff is a
good way to learn how to write
code.
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