[email protected] Engaging Computing: Makin’ It Real for Kids and Undergrads Fred G. Martin...
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[email protected] Engaging Computing: Makin’ It Real for Kids and Undergrads Fred G. Martin University of Massachusetts Lowell
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Transcript of [email protected] Engaging Computing: Makin’ It Real for Kids and Undergrads Fred G. Martin...
Engaging Computing:Makin’ It Real
for Kids and Undergrads
Fred G. Martin University of Massachusetts Lowell
Overview
• Computational design primitives• Projects/applications/ideas for
– Elementary school– Teenagers– High school and college
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
Computational Jewelry
• The idea: build necklaces that would perform personality correlations
• Inspired by MIT Media Lab “Thinking Tag” project (Rick Borovoy)
Four Questions
• Are you a girl?• Are you left-handed?• Do you have pets?• Are you 9 yrs. old or younger?
Implementation
Wear the Cricket on your wrist,Aim it at your friend and they canCommunicate with infrared
Little expansion boardGoes your lapel;Has outputs for 7 lights
UML DESIGNCAMP
• 1 month of week-long design-oriented classes for teenagers
• Shipwreck Electronics,Kinetic Sculpture, Sea-Mobiles, Electronics & Music, etc
• Created and run by Douglas Prime, www.designcamp.org
Animatronics Camp
QuickTime™ and aMotion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Animatronic Dog (2 of 3)
QuickTime™ and aMotion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Animatronics Dog (3 of 3)
QuickTime™ and aMotion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Happy Halloween!
QuickTime™ and aMotion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Animatronics Camp
QuickTime™ and aMotion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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
Egghunt
QuickTime™ and aMotion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Trinity Fire-Fighting
QuickTime™ and aMotion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Big Teams & Big Robots
• Big team is > 3 people• Big robot is too big to step on• Such as…
When it’s big
• Technical integration is hard• Team dynamics can be hard• Physics matters!
Calcomp Pen Plotters
QuickTime™ and aMotion JPEG OpenDML decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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…
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
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.
