
NSF Org: |
IIS Division of Information & Intelligent Systems |
Recipient: |
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Initial Amendment Date: | September 11, 2012 |
Latest Amendment Date: | July 24, 2013 |
Award Number: | 1208566 |
Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
Program Manager: |
gregory chirikjian
IIS Division of Information & Intelligent Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
Start Date: | October 1, 2012 |
End Date: | September 30, 2015 (Estimated) |
Total Intended Award Amount: | $266,855.00 |
Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $266,855.00 |
Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2013 = $127,163.00 |
History of Investigator: |
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Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 LOMB MEMORIAL DR ROCHESTER NY US 14623-5603 (585)475-7987 |
Sponsor Congressional District: |
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Primary Place of Performance: |
1 Lomb Memorial Dr Rochester NY US 14623-5603 |
Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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Parent UEI: |
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NSF Program(s): |
ITEST-Inov Tech Exp Stu & Teac, TUES-Type 1 Project |
Primary Program Source: |
04001314DB NSF Education & Human Resource 1300XXXXDB H-1B FUND, EDU, NSF |
Program Reference Code(s): |
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Program Element Code(s): |
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Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
The following project is an effort to re-conceptualize what it means to study computer science at the undergraduate level. Based on years of research and curriculum development, the project team at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is collectively building on prior work to design a sequence of computer science courses that integrate the use of a network of robots to facilitate student learning. In this project, the co-robot teams share space and tasks with humans and are used as a teaching platform in an introductory context, and as a laboratory platform for projects in intermediate and upper-level courses in which students can develop and even invent new services. This approach enhances a traditional approach to teaching computer science and provides ample opportunities for students to design, test, and evaluate using co-robot systems.
The project focuses on three main goals: (1) Develop a co-robot platform that can be used by undergraduates of all levels within the existing curriculum and is adoptable by other universities; (2) Improve student engagement and learning of core CS concepts through modules that use the co-robot platform; and (3) Develop undergraduate students with a thorough understanding of co-robot systems and their potential applications. The project team is developing modules aimed at an introductory sequence, data management, and networking. Coupled with module development, there is heavy emphasis on building suitable hardware that will serve the needs of students, giving them the flexibility to develop new applications (code) to operate and manipulate the co-robotics systems.
The project measures the impact of the new approach on student outcomes through both qualitative and quantitative measures, with the intent of disseminating the model and technology beyond the context of RIT. As such, the project will enhance the knowledge base about the effective use of co-robotics systems in traditional undergraduate computer science courses.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The goal of this project was to develop and put in place highly-capable robots that can be used as an educational platform throughout the computer science curriculum. Traditionally, robots have been used for teaching two general areas of computer science: introductory programming, usually with fairly simple and inexpensive robots, and robotics, in which the challenging algorithms inherent in controlling robots are explored. The impetus behind using robots in introductory courses is that they are an engaging platform in which students can see the physical manifestation of their code, and we set out to extend this to more advanced courses in the standard curriculum.
Intellectual Merit: The first component of the project involved developing inexpensive, yet highly capable robots, and provide a programming environment for them that is accessible to programmers without robotics experience. That is, the robots can be given a destination from the student’s program, and will autonomously plan their path, navigate to the destination while avoiding obstacles in their path, and report back upon successful (or unsuccessful) completion of the motion. This is done over the entire area of one floor of our building, approximately 30 by 100 meters in size. As such, the student can concentrate on the remainder of the program, such as the networking or database task that is the core of their assignment, while still seeing the robots perform their task in the real world. In addition, the robots are designed to interact with people in the building - the laptop that controls them is placed to make its screen visible and messages are displayed as it moves around, and the 2D barcodes that it uses to help determine its position can also be read by standard apps to find the web pages of faculty members, research labs, and so on. Eight robots were constructed to enable multiple students to work on the system.
For the second part of the project, the robots were used by a number of students without training in robotics, to evaluate the utility of the system to teach advanced computing topics. For example, one student completed an independent study course in which he designed and developed the integration of databases hosted on the robots with databases hosted on a “cloud” server. This study adapted current research in mobile data synchronization among mobile devices and centralized database servers to the world of robotics. Another student developed a streaming video service from the robots to a web server, so that anyone can see “through the robot’s eyes” and get additional performance data while the robot is working. Students have also integrated additional features such as face recognition and pedestrian detection on the robots, without requiring specific robotics knowledge. Even as the project officially comes to a close, the robots are continuing in service for projects such as an interactive tour guide for the department and we will continue to make our hardware design and software publicly available. Feedback from the students who have participated in these projects suggests that while seeing their code operate in a real environment is exciting, the challenges involved with real hardware, including the additional time taken to test their programs during motion across an entire building, may make such robots not sufficiently valuable for the general student body.
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