C-Sheep: Controlling Entities in a 3D Virtual World as a Tool for Computer Science Education

One of the challenges in teaching computer science in general and computer programming in particular is to maintain the interest of students, who often perceive the subject as difficult and tedious. To this end, we introduce C-Sheep, a mini-language-like system for computer science education, using a state of the art rendering engine, usually found in entertainment systems. The intention is to motivate students to spend more time programming, which can be achieved by providing an enjoyable experience. Computer programming is an essential skill for software developers and as such is always an integral part of every computer science curriculum. However, even if students are pursuing a computer science related degree, it can be very difficult to interest them in the act of computer programming, the writing of software, itself. In the C-Sheep system this is addressed by using the visual gimmickry of modern computer games, which allows programs to provide instant visualisation of algorithms. This visual feedback is invaluable to the understanding of how the algorithm works, and - if there are unintended results - how errors in the program can be debugged. The C-Sheep programming language is a (100% compatible) subset of the ANSI C programming language. Apart from just being a tool for learning the basics of the C programming language, C-Sheep implements the C control structures that are required for teaching the basic computer science principles encountered in structured programming. Unlike other teaching languages which have minimal syntax and which are variable free to provide an environment with minimal complexity, C-Sheep allows the declaration and use of variables. C-Sheep also supports the definition of sub-routines (functions) which can be called recursively. "The Meadow" virtual environment is the virtual world in which entities (in our case sheep) controlled by C-Sheep programs exist. This micro world provides a graphical representation of the algorithms used in the programs controlling the virtual entities. Their position and orientation within the virtual world visualise the current state of the program. "The Meadow" is based on our proprietary "Crossbow" game engine which incorporates a virtual machine for executing CSheep programs. The Crossbow Engine is a compact game engine which is flexible in design and offers a number of features common to more complex engines. The Crossbow Virtual Machine used with C-Sheep in "The Meadow" - an improvement on the ZBL/0 virtual machine - is a module of the Crossbow Engine. The C-Sheep system also provides a counterpart library for C, mirroring the CSheep library functions of the virtual machine. This allows C-Sheep programs to be compiled into an executable using a normal off-the-shelf C/C++ compiler. This executable can then be run from within the native working environment of the operating system. The purpose of this library is to simplify the migration from the educational mini-language to real-world systems by allowing novice programmers to make an easy transition from using the C-Sheep system to using the C programming language

Critters in the Classroom: A 3D Computer-Game-Like Tool for Teaching Programming to Computer Animation Students

The brewing crisis threatening computer science education is a well documented fact. To counter this and to increase enrolment and retention in computer science related degrees, it has been suggested to make programming "more fun" and to offer "multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary programs" [Carter 2006]. The Computer Visualisation and Animation undergraduate degree at the National Centre for Computer Animation (Bournemouth University) is such a programme. Computer programming forms an integral part of the curriculum of this technical arts degree, and as educators we constantly face the challenge of having to encourage our students to engage with the subject. We intend to address this with our C-Sheep system, a reimagination of the "Karel the Robot" teaching tool [Pattis 1981], using modern 3D computer game graphics that today's students are familiar with. This provides a game-like setting for writing computer programs, using a task-specific set of instructions which allow users to take control of virtual entities acting within a micro world, effectively providing a graphical representation of the algorithms used. Whereas two decades ago, students would be intrigued by a 2D top-down representation of the micro world, the lack of the visual gimmickry found in modern computer games for representing the virtual world now makes it extremely difficult to maintain the interest of students from today's "Plug&Play generation". It is therefore especially important to aim for a 3D game-like representation which is "attractive and highly motivating to today's generation of media-conscious students" [Moskal et al. 2004]. Our system uses a modern, platform independent games engine, capable of presenting a visually rich virtual environment using a state of the art rendering engine of a type usually found in entertainment systems. Our aim is to entice students to spend more time programming, by providing them with an enjoyable experience. This paper provides a discussion of the 3D computer game technology employed in our system and presents examples of how this can be exploited to provide engaging exercises to create a rewarding learning experience for our students

Do Robots Dream of Virtual Sheep: Rediscovering the "Karel the Robot" Paradigm for the "Plug&Play Generation"

We introduce ”C-Sheep”, an educational system designed to teach students the fundamentals of computer programming in a novel and exciting way. Recent studies suggest that computer science education is fast approaching a crisis - application numbers for degree courses in the area of computer programming are down, and potential candidates are put off the subject which they do not fully understand. We address this problem with our system by providing the visually rich virtual environment of ”The Meadow”, where the user writes programs to control the behaviour of a sheep using our ”CSheep” programming language. This combination of the ”Karel the Robot” paradigm with modern 3D computer graphics techniques, more commonly found in computer games, aims to help students to realise that computer programming can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience and intends to help educators with the teaching of computer science fundamentals. Our mini-language-like system for computer science education uses a state of the art rendering engine offering features more commonly found in entertainment systems. The scope of the mini-language is designed to fit in with the curriculum for the first term of an introductory computer program ming course (using the C programming language)

An infrastructure service recommendation system for cloud applications with real-time QoS requirement constraints

The proliferation of cloud computing has revolutionized the hosting and delivery of Internet-based application services. However, with the constant launch of new cloud services and capabilities almost every month by both big (e.g., Amazon Web Service and Microsoft Azure) and small companies (e.g., Rackspace and Ninefold), decision makers (e.g., application developers and chief information officers) are likely to be overwhelmed by choices available. The decision-making problem is further complicated due to heterogeneous service configurations and application provisioning QoS constraints. To address this hard challenge, in our previous work, we developed a semiautomated, extensible, and ontology-based approach to infrastructure service discovery and selection only based on design-time constraints (e.g., the renting cost, the data center location, the service feature, etc.). In this paper, we extend our approach to include the real-time (run-time) QoS (the end-to-end message latency and the end-to-end message throughput) in the decision-making process. The hosting of next-generation applications in the domain of online interactive gaming, large-scale sensor analytics, and real-time mobile applications on cloud services necessitates the optimization of such real-time QoS constraints for meeting service-level agreements. To this end, we present a real-time QoS-aware multicriteria decision-making technique that builds over the well-known analytic hierarchy process method. The proposed technique is applicable to selecting Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud offers, and it allows users to define multiple design-time and real-time QoS constraints or requirements. These requirements are then matched against our knowledge base to compute the possible best fit combinations of cloud services at the IaaS layer. We conducted extensive experiments to prove the feasibility of our approach

Pervasive Parallel And Distributed Computing In A Liberal Arts College Curriculum

We present a model for incorporating parallel and distributed computing (PDC) throughout an undergraduate CS curriculum. Our curriculum is designed to introduce students early to parallel and distributed computing topics and to expose students to these topics repeatedly in the context of a wide variety of CS courses. The key to our approach is the development of a required intermediate-level course that serves as a introduction to computer systems and parallel computing. It serves as a requirement for every CS major and minor and is a prerequisite to upper-level courses that expand on parallel and distributed computing topics in different contexts. With the addition of this new course, we are able to easily make room in upper-level courses to add and expand parallel and distributed computing topics. The goal of our curricular design is to ensure that every graduating CS major has exposure to parallel and distributed computing, with both a breadth and depth of coverage. Our curriculum is particularly designed for the constraints of a small liberal arts college, however, much of its ideas and its design are applicable to any undergraduate CS curriculum