No room for robots?

Future of Robots in Education, 3/4/09

Zachary Dodds Harvey Mudd College

strategies for sneaking them in anyway…

This summer… IJCAI 2009in PasadenaJuly 13-16

all platforms

Exhibit: class, team, or individual projects

Challenge: exploration task ~ landmarks

and/or

Why?

all tasks

Institutionally invested in our current, required CS 1

CS1 CS2 ElectivesSoftware Engineering

Operating Systems

Data Structures

but I want to motivate students' computational thinking with robots.

Robotics!Students?

… student-run robotics club

Robotics?Students!

CS1 CS2 ElectivesSoftware Engineering

Operating Systems

Data Structures

Robotics!Students?

… student-run robotics club

Robotics!Students!

Institutionally invested in our current, required CS 1

but I want to motivate students' computational thinking with robots.

An opportunity…

In 2007 the CS department decided to actively invite first-year women into independent summer projects

- build our (low!) number of women majors

- chance to really "get into" CS

pre-major

- without demanding too much background…

Motivating, accessible task?

-- when you're not as courageous as Andy!

An opportunity…

credit to Jeff Forbes and Chad Jenkinsand now Monica Anderson

In 2007 the CS department decided to actively invite first-year women into independent summer projects

- build our (low!) number of women majors

- chance to really "get into" CS

pre-major

- without demanding too much background…

Create!

Independence

Ownership

Guidance

Directed

the idea

help to turn to

"Insomnia"

the specified base

"creative mess"

students!

Create!

Independence

Ownership

Guidance start from

scratch

help w/ directi

on

7 summer weeks is MUCH more than a semester…

test

Directed

Share…

Independence

Ownership

Guidance presenting one's system

on their own

presented at CS colloquium 10/19/09madness vs. method?

Directed

Results?

Share…run

Results?

Share…run

1/3 ~ not as good as we'd hoped…

CS

EngPhysics

Results?

Share…run

3/5 sounds a whole lot better!

EngPhysicsCSCS

CS

Momentum?

Summer 2008

CS 1

The mess theory in action

4 of 10 app.

3 of 4 cs

Simulator ~ final projectTry it out on the Create…

"teaser"

Robotics: Hardware and SoftwareGreed

Lab-seminar advised by Engineering & CS

but taught entirely by students

16 of 45 app.

? of 16 cs

Fall 2008run

run

3 of 8 women, 1 of 8 men CS2

PerspectiveEarly summer projects

CS 1 teasers

First-term seminar

student-led or

summertime

Keys

motivationpowerful, accessible

platform

accessible task

commodity PCs

sustainable

vs. credit

Robots can always fit

in !

external task!

to get them through the door…

to making it positive

Platforms ~ future?Hardware and software that scales up pedagogically

Myro, running FastSLAMmaps

vision

Peaches' pen and landmarks

run

Beyond Blobs…

Image profiles ~ impressive compass

run

Image profiles ~ impressive compass

run

Platforms ~ future?

And scales back down again, as needed!

AAAI 2008

Elaine and campers @ the exhibition

Hence… IJCAI 2009

A pedagogically scalable venue !

in PasadenaJuly 13-16

any platformany landmarksand/or task

Have your students join in…

the labs are online

Robotics: Hardware and SoftwareGreed16 of 45 app.

? of 16 cs

Fall 2008

One Laptop Per Child

Netbooks (Chad Jenkins)

Tekkotsu (David T. et al.)

Platforms: future?

Fall 2008

Results…

picturepictures

Thoughts

Summer projects

ownership & support: create – tests - shareCS 1 teasers

First-term seminar

motivating tasks & venues

shared across departmentsstudent-ledcurricularized

Keys

motivationpower & accessibility

accessible task (and venue)

commodity PCs

Platforms: future?Outdoor vehicle: Jeep

Thoughts

Summer projectsownership & support: create – tests - share

CS 1 teasers

first-term seminar

motivating tasks & venues

shared across departmentsstudent-ledcurricularized Keys

motivationpowerful platforms

accessible platforms

accessible task and venuecommodity PCs

Robotics at CS's margins:

outward in and vice versa.

Future of Robots in Education, 3/4/09

Zachary DoddsHarvey Mudd College

images

Robotics: drawing power from the margins

Future of Robots in Education, 3/4/09

Zachary DoddsHarvey Mudd College

Extremal

Extreme

Robots motivate

funphysicalneed nurturingcapture an essence of being human that other computational interactions lack

messy vs. clean

An undergraduate CS view of the curricular world

CS1 CS2 Subfields

Software Engineering

Operating Systems

Operating SystemsCS0

What to do with that motivation?

This the answer to the symposium's question - and it's our choice.

(1) exposurestory - not good intra-departmental problems…

(2) recruitment

(3) depth

students recruit themselves! <-- our findings

(4) integrationfocused investigations

focused investigations

An undergraduate CS view of the curricular world

CS1 CS2 Subfields

out-of-band

Operating Systems

Operating SystemsCS0

What to do with that motivation?

This the answer to the symposium's question - and it's our choice.

(1) exposurestory - not good intra-departmental problems…

(2) recruitment

(3) depth

students recruit themselves! <-- our findings

(4) integrationfocused investigations

focused investigations

images

First-year Advising

Future of Robots in Education, 3/4/09

Zachary DoddsHarvey Mudd College

Extremal

Extreme

Robots motivate

funphysicalneed nurturingcapture an essence of being human that other computational interactions lack

First-year advising

First-year Advising

Challenge: create extremely accessible resources

Rachel, Vedika, and Jessica

Middle/high school events

Depth: Elaine

Myro materials OLPC ~ PC + motorsAnswer: vision

The undergraduate CS view of the curricular world

Future of Robots in Education, 3/4/09

Zachary DoddsHarvey Mudd College

Computation

The undergraduate CS view of the curricular world

Future of Robots in Education, 3/4/09

Zachary DoddsHarvey Mudd College

Computation

The undergraduate CS view of the curricular world

SIGCSE '09

CS 1 strategy 1

CS 1 strategy 2

CS 1 strategy 3

CS 1 in

anonymization in blue

Audrey Lawrence

It is more important for a student of X to have computational-savvy

than it is for a student of CS to have X-savvy.

SIGCSE '09

CS 1 strategy 1

CS 1 strategy 2

CS 1 strategy 3

CS 1 in

anonymization in blue

Looking ahead, it is more important for a student

of X to be computationally-savvy

X

At its best, computation amplifies.

than it is for a student of CS to be

X-savvy.

Opportunity in orthogonality!

Warning: do not say this to anyone in field X !

Our audience is not our students!

At its best, computation amplifies.

Personal

Relevant

Accessible

Sharableaxis

CS departments might consider following the computation…

axis

Prescribed

Shortcuttable

Passion Beauty

Joy Awe

What is learned is the square root of what is taught!

balancing actBloom's 2-sigma rule

All educatonal experiments are doomed to succeed…

Education ~ economics, not science.

real