Teaching Software Engineering through Robotics

This paper presents a newly-developed robotics programming course and reports the initial results of software engineering education in robotics context. Robotics programming, as a multidisciplinary course, puts equal emphasis on software engineering and robotics. It teaches students proper software engineering -- in particular, modularity and documentation -- by having them implement four core robotics algorithms for an educational robot. To evaluate the effect of software engineering education in robotics context, we analyze pre- and post-class survey data and the four assignments our students completed for the course. The analysis suggests that the students acquired an understanding of software engineering techniques and principles

ATTRACTION AND RETENTION OF WOMEN IN COMPUTER SCIENCE AT WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

This project is intended to help the Computer Science Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute understand the underlying reasons why female students are underrepresented in the department. Based upon the analysis of 193 survey responses and several interviews, this project builds upon both existing research and the team\u27s own investigations. Our in-depth analysis results in a series of recommendations to increase the number of women in computer science at the university

Physics Education Research: The effects of context-rich problem solving in groups in introductory electricity and magnetism courses

This project investigated whether or not interactive-engagement through context-rich problem solving in groups can augment the comprehension of concepts in introductory electricity and magnetism courses. The average gain was 4.26±14.5, meaning students exposed to context-rich problem solving in groups improved, on average, by five more points on their final exams. This study suggests context-rich problem solving is helpful but, due to a large standard deviation, is not statistically conclusive. In addition to this general result, several subgroups were analyzed (declared major, year of graduation, and gender). It was found that while context-rich problem solving is useful overall, some groups may benefit more than others, and some groups may be hindered by exposure to these methods

Computing Language and Thinking: Analysis, Design, and Assessment of Introductory Computer Science Workshops in the Liberal Arts Experience

This project seeks to assess and improve upon a new required introductory computer science workshop for first year students at Bard College. It addresses the design and implementation of the course itself, along with the improvements needed in order to continue the program. Many students are not offered computer science courses prior to college; this program has been designed to remedy that by requiring all students to learn key concepts in computer science as a part of their orientation. The program consists of a 90 minute lesson taught by professors with expertise in fields outside of computer science, in addition to student led two-hour ”coding studios” in Graphics, Robotics and Digital Literature. Participants took a survey based on the Computing Attitudes Survey before and after the program. These surveys were paired using anonymous identification numbers unique to each participating student. This paired data was then analyzed and used to identify changing attitudes towards computer science concepts and themes. Using these results, a new and improved curriculum is designed to be implemented in following years

Reducing the Barrier to Entry of Complex Robotic Software: a MoveIt! Case Study

Developing robot agnostic software frameworks involves synthesizing the disparate fields of robotic theory and software engineering while simultaneously accounting for a large variability in hardware designs and control paradigms. As the capabilities of robotic software frameworks increase, the setup difficulty and learning curve for new users also increase. If the entry barriers for configuring and using the software on robots is too high, even the most powerful of frameworks are useless. A growing need exists in robotic software engineering to aid users in getting started with, and customizing, the software framework as necessary for particular robotic applications. In this paper a case study is presented for the best practices found for lowering the barrier of entry in the MoveIt! framework, an open-source tool for mobile manipulation in ROS, that allows users to 1) quickly get basic motion planning functionality with minimal initial setup, 2) automate its configuration and optimization, and 3) easily customize its components. A graphical interface that assists the user in configuring MoveIt! is the cornerstone of our approach, coupled with the use of an existing standardized robot model for input, automatically generated robot-specific configuration files, and a plugin-based architecture for extensibility. These best practices are summarized into a set of barrier to entry design principles applicable to other robotic software. The approaches for lowering the entry barrier are evaluated by usage statistics, a user survey, and compared against our design objectives for their effectiveness to users

Combat Robotics Hackathon

The Combat Robotics Hackathon team’s mission was to create a framework for an engaging and reproducible event that can be expanded beyond WPI to other universities. The mission had two main objectives: create resources and plans for introducing 3D Printing and Computer Aided Design (CAD) and run a successful combat robotics hackathon event. The hackathon event was run in A term 2018 and was a great success. The forty-five participants made fifteen robots by the end of the weekend. Most of the participants improved their 3D printing and CAD skills and all of them enjoyed the hackathon

Corporate Financial Intelligence: Bridging the Educational Gap

Entrepreneurship education can greatly benefit STEM students. STEM education is changing to realize these benefits. Through surveying students and interviewing faculty and alumni at WPI, we investigate if education properly equips STEM students with the necessary financial knowledge and skills needed in the business world. Findings show that although corporate finance is important, STEM students are generally not exposed to and lack financial knowledge. Exposure to corporate financial education through multidisciplinary projects and courses would be beneficial for STEM students

Student Preparedness in College Mathematics

Educators everywhere are always wondering – is the work we are doing here preparing our students for the next step? With all of the educational reforms that have been taking place in the past twenty years, it is important to examine how students’ preparedness for college math has changed. This report explores student preparedness for college in math through many different mediums. From faculty perceptions, to students thoughts on how well they felt high school prepared them for what they are going through now, and what the numbers have to say about it all. Through some analysis of the pre-calculus and calculus background students have before attending college, it is hard to say that recent improvements are impacting students enough to show significant growth over the last five years