Robotics and Education





Note added 2/11/2018. This document has not been updated since it was originally created in 2010. It is fun to look at some of the "state of the art" back in those "good old days." Robotics has certainly made substantial progress. However, clearly the field still has a long long way to go. See my 11/22/2017 IAE Blog entry at http://i-a-e.org/iae-blog/entry/very-agile-very-mobile-robots.html.



This is a stub created 7/14/2010 and added to 9/20/2010 by Dave Moursund.

Readers interested in this topic may want to read the following IAE document:

Volunteer led robotics projects and robotics contests in precollege education.

Carnegie Mellon
Carnegie Mellon (7/13/2010). Carnegie Mellon Launches $7 Million Initiative Using Robots To Boost Science, Technology Majors. Retrieved 7/14/2010 from http://www.cmu.edu/news/archive/2010/July/july13_robotsinnovation.shtml. Quoting form the press release:


 * Carnegie Mellon Launches $7 Million Initiative

Using Robots To Boost Science, Technology Majors


 * PITTSBURGH—A new four-year, $7 million educational initiative by Carnegie Mellon University will leverage students' innate interest in robots and other forms of "hard fun" to increase U.S. enrollments in computer science and steer more young people into scientific and technological careers.


 * The initiative, called Fostering Innovation through Robotics Exploration (FIRE), is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and designed to reverse a significant national decline in the number of college students majoring in computer science, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (CS-STEM).


 * FIRE will develop new tools that enable middle and high school students to expand upon their interest in robots, leading them from one CS-STEM activity to the next. Examples are programming tools that create game-like virtual worlds where robot programs can be tested, as well as computerized tutors that teach mathematics and computer science in the context of robotics.


 * The initiative will target robotic competitions such as FIRST, VEX and Robofest that already are popular among secondary school students, but also will create new competitions for autonomous, multi-robot teams and for computer animations that will attract a broader array of students and offer new challenges.

Frauenfelder, Mark (October 2010). School for hackers. The Atlantic. Retrieved 9/20/2010 from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/10/school-for-hackers/8218.

The focus is on the benefits of having children in schools (and adults) spend more time on project-based learning activities, with an emphasis on projects in which people build useful objects and carry out useful, productive tasks. The Website includes a 3:42 video that illustrates this theme.

Quoting from the article:


 * The ideal educational environment for kids, observes Peter Gray, a professor of psychology at Boston College who studies the way children learn, is one that includes “the opportunity to mess around with objects of all sorts, and to try to build things.” Countless experiments have shown that young children are far more interested in objects they can control than in those they cannot control—a behavioral tendency that persists. In her review of research on project-based learning (a hands-on, experience-based approach to education), Diane McGrath, former editor of the Journal of Computer Science Education, reports that project-based students do as well as (and sometimes better than) traditionally educated students on standardized tests, and that they “learn research skills, understand the subject matter at a deeper level than do their traditional counterparts, and are more deeply engaged in their work.” …


 * Unfortunately, says Gray, our schools don’t teach kids how to make things, but instead train them to become scholars, “in the narrowest sense of the word, meaning someone who spends their time reading and writing. Of course, most people are not scholars. We survive by doing things.”

Roscorla, Tanya (7/30/2010). Carnegie Mellon Sparks Interest in Computer Science with Robot Project Retrieved 8/6/2010 from http://www.convergemag.com/college-career/Carnegie-Mellon-Robots.html.Quoting from the article:
 * After school in Pittsburgh, sixth- through 12th-graders spend three hours in the TechGYRLS program. They finish their homework, eat a snack and then start applying the math concepts they studied in class.
 * With Carnegie Mellon curriculum, the girls make robots move, navigate around objects and even dance, said Monique McIntosh, director of teen services for YWCA Greater Pittsburgh, which offers the TechGYRLS program. The students enjoy doing hands-on activities that allow them to be creative, and by using the robotics curriculum, they've improved their math and science grades.

National Science Foundation
July 26, 2010. See an excellent video at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/acrobaticrobots.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_51. Quoting from the Website:


 * Acrobatic Robots


 * Dennis Hong is living his dreams ... literally ... in a lab filled with wacky robots.


 * "When I was seven years old, I watched the film 'Star Wars' for the very first time. It just completely blew my mind. All the robots and spaceships," recalls Dennis Hong. You never know where you will find inspiration! For Hong, a mechanical engineer, it was there, on the silver screen.


 * "R2D2, how it moved, its locomotion, inspired me to study robot locomotion, and C3PO, the human servant robot, inspired me to study human-robot interaction," says Hong. The force has been with him ever since.

Robots Rule
Schaffhauser, Dian (4/17/2012). Robots Rule as Competition Season Heats Up. THE Journal. Retrieved 4/18/2012 from http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/04/17/robots-rule-as-competition-season-heats-up.aspx.

Quoting from the article:


 * Robotics has become a phenomenon in K-12. Tens of thousands of teams composed of literally hundreds of thousands of K-12 students will compete in robotics events worldwide in 2012 alone. Yet, with all of this activity, robotics programs are only in 10 percent of the schools in the United States.




 * Robotics in K-12 has become a phenomenon, with multiple organizations--FIRST, VEX, BEST, and Botball--selling kits, encouraging students to participate, and running competitions. During 2012, FIRST competitions will encompass nearly 27,000 teams with 293,000 high school, middle school, and grade school students. The VEX program, run by VEX Robotics Design System, hosts 4,800-plus teams in 23 countries and puts on 300 events a year. The VEX world championship takes place in Anaheim starting April 18 and will host 600 teams from 17 countries.

A Prediction of the Future
Thiboddeau, Patrick (7/14/2010). Robots as the next big industry. Computerworld. Retrieved 8/31/2010 from http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9179147/Robots_as_the_next_big_industry_?taxonomyId=12. Quoting from the article:


 * The hardest thing about artificial intelligence (AI) is keeping your imagination in check. A visit to some robotic displays at an AI conference here opens the mind to incredible possibilities.


 * Imagine, for instance, CNBC's Jim Cramer, who just about jumps up and down when he talks about the "mobile Internet tsunami," doing something similar for the "robotics tsunami" as the next big industry. It is that kind of thinking that AI can trigger.


 * However, for the wonder of watching a robot with expressive eye movements, there is a competing reality that progress is slow. For a sense of the timeline, the Conference on Artificial Intelligence marks its silver anniversary next year.


 * "Early on there was this dream that robots could be generally intelligent; that they would rival and surpass humans in their abilities to do things," Leslie Kaelbling, a professor of computer science and engineering at MIT, said at the conference. "The current commercial reality is pretty different."


 * A lot of AI research fragmented in directions away from robotics, creating algorithms that underpin business intelligence, finance, Web and other uses. AI got separated from robotics because the machines are a pain: physical and unreliable. However, "They are getting better," Kaelbling said.

Author or Coauthors
This page was created by David Moursund