A Novice's Process of Object-Oriented Programming

Exposing students to the process of programming is merely implied but not explicitly addressed in texts on programming which appear to deal with 'program' as a noun rather than as a verb.We present a set of principles and techniques as well as an informal but systematic process of decomposing a programming problem. Two examples are used to demonstrate the application of process and techniques.The process is a carefully down-scaled version of a full and rich software engineering process particularly suited for novices learning object-oriented programming. In using it, we hope to achieve two things: to help novice programmers learn faster and better while at the same time laying the foundation for a more thorough treatment of the aspects of software engineering

Integrating Python into Mechanical Engineering undergraduate curriculum

Integrating the fundamentals of computer science and programming skills into the undergraduate engineering curriculum has been a primary focus for many educational institutions around the world. Learning the basics of programming from the beginning of undergraduate engineering education allows students to incorporate such skills into their work in the future with ease. The department of mechanical engineering at University College London has acknowledged this value and decided to implement a programming element into the first-year mechanical engineering curriculum to teach the basics of Python language and assess it using a real-life engineering problem. Python is general-purpose, concise, easy-to-read and -learn programming language that has become one of the most popular and in-demand languages in the world. Python has a vast ecosystem of tools, packages, and libraries that address a wide-ranging number of programming scenarios and provide mechanical engineers with a large array of general-purpose functionality. The addition of this element to the first-year curriculum during the last academic year 2021- 2022 has shown a high assessment passing rate and notable student engagement. In this extended abstract, an overview of planning, implementing and the results obtained from this process will be illustrated, and future work plans will be outlined

Advancing Robotics at the Harry Fultz Institute

This project advanced the robotics club at the Harry Fultz Institute in Tirana, Albania by applying various teaching methods, including self-directed learning and group work. We worked alongside Professor Enxhi Jaupi and 6 teams of 5 high school students to understand, design, and construct robots to complete complex tasks. During this time, students were taught fundamental concepts of robotics, such as DC motors, computer-aided design (CAD), and programming. The biggest obstacle to project completion remained the long shipping time for parts. Two solutions proposed to address the long delay in part arrival are pre-selecting student projects or structuring the club around a final competition. The main future goal is to establish the school as the center of robotics in Albania

Lucene4IR: Developing information retrieval evaluation resources using Lucene

The workshop and hackathon on developing Information Retrieval Evaluation Resources using Lucene (L4IR) was held on the 8th and 9th of September, 2016 at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK and funded by the ESF Elias Network. The event featured three main elements: (i) a series of keynote and invited talks on industry, teaching and evaluation; (ii) planning, coding and hacking where a number of groups created modules and infrastructure to use Lucene to undertake TREC based evaluations; and (iii) a number of breakout groups discussing challenges, opportunities and problems in bridging the divide between academia and industry, and how we can use Lucene for teaching and learning Information Retrieval (IR). The event was composed of a mix and blend of academics, experts and students wanting to learn, share and create evaluation resources for the community. The hacking was intense and the discussions lively creating the basis of many useful tools but also raising numerous issues. It was clear that by adopting and contributing to most widely used and supported Open Source IR toolkit, there were many benefits for academics, students, researchers, developers and practitioners - providing a basis for stronger evaluation practices, increased reproducibility, more efficient knowledge transfer, greater collaboration between academia and industry, and shared teaching and training resources

Active learning in control education : a pocket-size PI(D) setup

Active learning techniques have the possibility to enhance student performance. In control engineering these techniques unravel concepts such as feedback control, proportional-integral-derivative control, system dynamics, etc. This paper presents the development of pocket-size PID setups and how they are implemented in an undergraduate course of control engineering. The setup makes use of an electrical circuit which has the capability of mimicking a wide range of processes, thus appealing to the multidisciplinary character of the student group. Custom-made analog PID printed circuit boards are developed, making each part of the controller transparent. Open-source software is used to build a graphical user interface to communicate with data-acquisition cards used in industry. It is shown in this paper that investing in mobile setups which are numerous, allows for active learning in control education. This leads to better understanding of abstract concepts and increased student performance

Innovative pedagogical practices in the craft of Computing

Computer programming, the art of actually instructing a computer to do what one wants, is fundamentally a practical skill. How does one teach this practical skill in a university setting, to students who may not be initially motivated to acquire it, and who may have a variety of past experience, or none at all? Furthermore, how does one do it in a resource-efficient way to large classes? Students are largely motivated by assessment: what is the best way to assess this skill? How does this skill relate to more abstract concepts like “computational thinking”? In this piece NTFs from very different universities explain their solutions

A Web-Based Distributed Virtual Educational Laboratory

Evolution and cost of measurement equipment, continuous training, and distance learning make it difficult to provide a complete set of updated workbenches to every student. For a preliminary familiarization and experimentation with instrumentation and measurement procedures, the use of virtual equipment is often considered more than sufficient from the didactic point of view, while the hands-on approach with real instrumentation and measurement systems still remains necessary to complete and refine the student's practical expertise. Creation and distribution of workbenches in networked computer laboratories therefore becomes attractive and convenient. This paper describes specification and design of a geographically distributed system based on commercially standard components

Stockport College of Further and Higher Education inspection report

Inspection week: May 21–May 25 200