Personal Robots: Personal Robots: An Impactful Context for An Impactful Context for Introductory CS EducationIntroductory CS Education

Prof. Tucker Balch, Georgia Institute of TechnologyDr. Stewart Tansley, Microsoft ResearchProf. Doug Blank, Bryn Mawr CollegeDr. Jay Summet, Georgia Institute of Technology

Deepak Kumar, Mark Guzdial, Keith O’Hara, Daniel Walker, Jared Jackson, Gaurav Gupta, Monica Sweat

The Institute for Personal Robots in Education

IPRE OverviewIPRE OverviewMission:

Make education more fun and effective through the use of personal robots. Audience: All levels, from middle school to graduate school.

Joint effort hosted at Georgia Tech with Bryn Mawr (+ MSR).

3 year seed funding provided by Microsoft Research.

Special ingredient and hypothesis:a personal robot for every student programmer

IPRE: Lead InstitutionsIPRE: Lead InstitutionsGeorgia Institute of Technology

Tier 1 research university.15,000 students.Mostly male.

Bryn Mawr CollegeLiberal arts college near Philadelphia, founded in 1885.1200 undergraduate women, 400 graduate students (co-ed).New program begun in 2000 in CS offers BA in Computer Science, minor in CS, and minor in Computational Methods.

First Target: Introductory First Target: Introductory CSCSWhy this target?

Importance: Declining undergraduate CS enrollment. No one to fill jobs; loss of intellectual capital. Can CS be more appealing?

Relevance: Robots are a compelling platform for explaining process (the essence of computing).

Impact: Introductory CS is a required or encouraged course for many students.

Example: How Context Can Example: How Context Can HelpHelp

1999: Intro CS required for all degrees at Georgia Tech = ~2000 students every year.

Success rate:Women: 61% passedMen: 72% passedNon-CS Majors: 50% passed

Example: How Context Can Example: How Context Can HelpHelp

2003, A new approach: Media context.

Success rate improved:Women: 88% passedMen: 84% passedNon-CS Majors: 86% passed

• Microsoft Research– Founded 1991– 800 researchers, 55 research areas, 6 labs– 800 interns in 2007– 3500 peer-reviewed papers to date– External Research – university partnerships:

• Science– http://microsoft.com/science

• Computer Science– http://research.microsoft.com/ur – Research + Education

• Microsoft & Robotics– MSRS announced summer 2006– v1.5 available today, $0 until you sell robots– “A Robot In Every Home”

• Scientific American, Jan 2007/Feb 2008– http://microsoft.com/robotics

Personal Robots for CS: Personal Robots for CS: Components of the Components of the ApproachApproach1. A personal robot.2. Approachable software/programming

environment.3. An engaging curriculum.4. Quantitative assessment.

Philosophy: The curriculum drives the design of the robot, software, and text.Engage the community.

A Robot for CS EducationNote: This is not robotics research.Personal: Every student with her own robot.

No labs with expensive robots.Instead: Inexpensive robots in the campus bookstore.

Reliable: No mystery regarding “does it work?”Break the compile-download-run cycle.

Leverage the desktop.

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IPRE “Pilot” Robot: $195IPRE “Pilot” Robot: $195

3 Light sensors2 IR sensors2 Line sensorsStall sensorSpeaker3 LEDs2 motorsBluetooth wireless

IPRE Pilot Robot v2: IPRE Pilot Robot v2: $149.95 $149.95

256x192 color cameraRaw images (0.5 HZ)On board color segmentation (6 HZ)

Battery voltage sensingVery bright rear facing LEDI2C extension portIR emitters and receiver

Obstacle/Wall detectionInter-Robot Communication

IPRE Gyro: $120IPRE Gyro: $120

Software for CS EducationSoftware for CS EducationMyro: My Robot.Focus on learnability

HAPI – Human-Application Programming InterfacePedagogically scalable – easy for first-time users, yet powerful and flexible for more advanced users

Phase 1 is Python-centric, platform agnostic.Follow on language agnostic.

Software StackSoftware Stack

Myro SoftwareMyro SoftwareSample Program (Python)Sample Program (Python)

def main(): while True: Left, Right = getIR() if Left: turnRight(turnSpeed) elif Right: turnLeft(turnSpeed) else: forward(cruiseSpeed)

# Avoiding Obstacles

from myro import *initialize(ask(“What port?”))

# program settings...cruiseSpeed = 0.6turnSpeed = 0.5

Example Test QuestionExample Test QuestionAssume you have routines:

TurnLeft90()TurnRight90()GoForwardOneFoot()

Write the code that would cause a robot to follow the illustrated path.

2 ft1 ft

1 ft

Sample AssignmentSample Assignment

Corral Exiting/Escape

Imagine a corral (an enclosed area with maze like partitions and an entrance) with a light source at the entrance (as shown in the figure to the right). Given the robot's position, can we design a behavior that will enable the robot to exit the corral?

CS1 Text (Chapter CS1 Text (Chapter Outline)Outline)Chapter 1 The World of Robots

Chapter 2 Robots: Personal or Otherwise Chapter 3 Building Brains Chapter 4 Sensing the World Chapter 5 Making Decisions Chapter 6 Behaviors Chapter 7 Control Paradigms Chapter 8 Making Music Chapter 9 Communication Chapter 10 Computing & Computation Chapter 11 Artificial Intelligence Chapter 12 Robots in the World

Data Collection and Data Collection and AssessmentAssessment Population to date:

At Georgia Tech2 “traditional” CS-1 courses4 “robot” CS-1 courses

At Bryn Mawr:2 “robot” CS-1 courses

Fall 2008:Roll out at up to 8 additional institutions.

The Course at GTThe Course at GT

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BMC Pilot Course – Spring BMC Pilot Course – Spring 20072007

24 students (22 women, 2 men)Learned CS concepts through robots.Robots made learning experience more hands-on, tangible, and exciting.Most frustrating parts were dealing with robot hardware inconsistencies.Viewed CS as a type of logic and problem solving; requiring patience & thought.Discovered that CS and robots are applicable to the real world.

BMC Pilot CoursesBMC Pilot Courses

Liked the use of personal robots

Did not like quirky issues with Scribblers

Learned programming and problem solving (as opposed to just robotics)

> 90% success rate among CS majors.Students felt that the course was focused on computer science, not on robotics.The frustrations in the course were mostly about the robot: Under-featured, difficult to maintain.No significant difference in success/failure rates from robotics vs. non-robotics sections (Spring 2007; still assessing Fall 2008).

GT Initial ResultsGT Initial Results

Yes!

Textbook is jointly edited by wikiMyro is under BSD licenseHardware specs, firmware, etc will be published

That’s Great But is it “Open”That’s Great But is it “Open”

Want a robot?www.roboteducation.org

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