Computers and Robots in
Education
Using Computing to Understand the
World
Mark Guzdial, Georgia Institute of Technology
The Institute for Personal Robots in Education
with Tucker Balch, Doug Blank, Deepak Kumar, Stewart Tansley,
Jared Jackson, Natasha Eilbert, Keith O’Hara, Daniel Walker,
Gaurav Gupta, Jay Summet, and Monica Sweat
Leonardo used painting to
understand his world
“He who despises painting loves neither
philosophy or nature. If you despise
painting, which is the sole imitator of all
the visible works of nature, you will be
certainly despising a subtle invention
which brings philosophy an subtle
speculation to bear upon the nature of all
forms- sea and land, plants and animals,
grasses and flowers…’
“… whatever exists in the universe, in
essence, in appearance, in the
imagination, the painter has first in his
mind and then in his hand.’
If Leonardo were alive today,
he’d use a computer!
A computer allows us to represent the
world:
Pictures
Sounds
Stories
Movement
And make it interactive.
The Computer is da Vinci’s “painting” for
understand all the world’s nature.
Teaching Computing in the
World at Georgia Tech
At Georgia Tech:
Every student must take a course in computer
science.
We offer 3 different introductory courses,
each contextualized: Taught using examples
that draw on the students’ world.
Using computing
to understand the world
Contextualized Computing
Education at Georgia Tech
3 Courses:
Introduction to Media Computation:
Understanding how digital media work
Introduction to Engineering Computing:
Understanding how Engineers create the
world with computing.
Introduction to Computing with Robots:
Understanding how robots work in the world.
Using the computer to
understand sound
Sounds are waves of air
pressure
Sound comes in cycles
The frequency of a wave
is the number of cycles
per second (cps), or Hertz
(Complex sounds have
more than one frequency
in them.)
The amplitude is the
maximum height of the
wave
Turning Sounds into Numbers
for the Computer
Remember in calculus,
estimating the curve by
creating rectangles?
We take samples: The
amount of air pressure
at any moment in time.
We take these samples
very often. For CDquality sound, 44,100
times per second!
Each sample is +/32,000
How would Leonardo use a
computer to understand sound?
Live Demo:
What makes different instruments different?
What does it mean to increase volume?
How do humans understand speech?
Using Robots to understand
Computing: IPRE Overview
Research Project
Mission: explore making CS education more
fun and effective through the context of a
personal robot
Target: All levels, from middle
school to graduate school
Joint effort hosted at Georgia Tech
with Bryn Mawr College (+ MSR)
3 year seed funding provided by
Microsoft Research (MSR)
Special ingredient and hypothesis:
A personal robot for every student
Personal Robot
Every student gets their own robot
Small enough to carry in backpack
Cost about the price of a textbook
Wireless, controlled from computer
Interactive and easy to program
Personalizable
More than “just a robot”
IPRE Pilot Hardware Kit
Featuring Parallax’s Scribbler
6 Light sensors
7 IR sensors
Stall sensor
Speaker
5 LEDs
2 motors
Bluetooth wireless
Camera
Gamepad
Scribbler with IPRE Fluke
Now available at www.roboteducation.org
IPRE’s Philosophy
The Personal Robot provides the context
The needs of the curriculum drive the design of the
robot, software, and text
The software should be easy to pick up, but scales
with experience
An accessible, engaging environment for new, diverse
students
Computer Science != programming
Computing as a social activity
Computing as a medium for creativity
Focus on performances rather than competitions
Curriculum Goals
Bring in examples from other related disciplines
(e.g., biology, AI)
Explicitly focus on robotics rather than
programming constructs (e.g., chapter titles
such as “Building Brains” rather than
“Variables” or “Loops”)
But, implicitly focus on Computing
We believe this defines the notion of a context
… and would work equally well with gameotics
Curriculum Goals
Bring in examples from other related disciplines
(e.g., biology, AI)
Explicitly focus on robotics rather than
programming constructs (e.g., chapter titles
such as “Building Brains” rather than
“Variables” or “Loops”)
Using Robots to Learn
Computing
Programming as a social activity
Making stories with robots
Robot Movies
Wonderful project by Jay Summet:
Creative, Collaborative, and Parallel!
Robots are characters.
Multiple characters mean multiple students with
multiple robots.
One robot is camera
How do you zoom?
Aim and go forward!
Challenges:
How do you know when your actors are in their
places?
How do you “cue” the others?
Post-processing media computation for eerie
disappearing effects. 19
Example Movie
Connections to Biology and
Psychology
Modeling Animals
How do animals sense light?
Why do moths move to the light?
How do they know which way to turn to
get there?
Does it matter if you see vs. smell?
We can model light-seeking behavior as
a way to understand animals using
robots
Audibly signaling a turn
def signalingTurn():
left = 0
right = 2
while timerRemaining(10):
if robot.getLight(left) < robot.getLight(right):
robot.beep(0.25,400)
if robot.getLight(right) < robot.getLight(left):
robot.beep(0.25,800)
signalingTurn()
“Civic Computing”
Initial Assessment
What was the most important or
interesting thing that you learned in this
course?
"That computer science can be creative!"
Assessment Results
Two main trials so-far:
Spring 2007: Attitudes robot (GT and Bryn
Mawr) and non-robot (GT)
Interviews to establish themes
Surveys to test themes across whole class
Fall 2007: More careful testing of learning,
same groupings
Attitudes in Spring 2007
All students enjoyed the robot, were
comfortable with it, and found it easy to
get working.
Personalizing the robot improved the course,
in students’ opinion.
Reported that the class was about
computer science
Found homework challenging
Differences in Attitudes
Spring 2007
BMC students did more on homework
“because it was cool.”
BMC students were undeclared majors.
Reported being more excited about CS
afterward.
GT students were already declared
majors.
Less excited about robots overall, but more
interested than BMC in more courses in
computer science.
W’s vs. F’s,
statistically significant
Bryn Mawr College Data for 12
years of CS2
10
8
6
4
2
0
CS2 Data Structures Enrollment
Looks Promising!
20
15
10
5
0
CS2 Data Structures Enrollment
Others: Storytelling, Music Video, Analysis
Combining Sound and
Robotics
Learn about music by making a
robot musician
Conclusions
Leonardo da Vinci would have used the
computer to understand his world.
We have shown today using computing and
robots to learn about sound, biology, and
stories.
Through the context of a Personal Robot we
hope to make computing more personal,
interesting, and effective
Initial assessment shows that students learn
about computing, find it challenging, yet
enjoyable