A Learning System for a Computational Science Related Topic

AbstractComputational science is an interdisciplinary field in which mathematical models combined with scientific computing methods are used to study systems of real-world problems. One of such mathematical models is automata theory. This paper introduces a learning system for automata theory. The learning system is a combination of java and robots technologies. Learners can build their own automaton graphically in the systems’ interface, and then pass it to the robot, which can then simulate the automaton transitions. Learners can learn by observing the robot's motion. A preliminary evaluation shows the effectiveness of the system in classroom

SCCharts: The Mindstorms Report

SCCharts are a visual language proposed in 2012 for specifying safety-critical reactive systems. This is the second SCCharts report towards the usability of the SCCharts visual language and its KIELER SCCharts implementation. KIELER is an open-source project which researches the pragmatics of model-based languages and related fields. Nine case-studies that were conducted between 2015 and 2019 evaluate the pros and cons in the context of small-scale Lego Mindstorms models and similar projects. Par-ticipants of the studies included undergraduate and graduate students from our local and also external facilities, as well as academics from the synchronous community. In the surveys, both the SCCharts language and the SCCharts tools are compared to other modeling and classical programming languages and tools

Legodroid: A Type-Driven Library for Android and LEGO Mindstorms Interoperability

LEGO Mindstorms robots are widely used as educational tools to acquire skills in programming complex systems involving the interaction of sensors and actuators, and they offer a flexible and modular workbench to design and evaluate user-machine interaction prototypes in the robotic area. However, there is still a lack of support to interoperability features and the need of high-level tools to program the interaction of a robot with other devices. In this paper, we introduce Legodroid, a new Java library enabling cross-programming LEGO Mindstorms robots through Android smartphones that exploits their combined computational and sensorial capabilities in a seamless way. The library provides a number of type-driven coding patterns for interacting with sensors and motors. In this way, the robustness of the software managing robot's sensors dramatically improves

Improving Students’ Learning Outcomes through Innovative Teaching Practices within Information Systems Education

This article analyses a number of innovative teaching and study practices within information systems education at Copenhagen Business School. Discussing such teaching and study practices including their particular relations to students’ learning outcomes, the article offers an applications-oriented approach, which can inspire information systems educators in both their curriculum development and their teaching practices. All with the aim of improving students’ learning outcomes through innovative teaching and study practices. We seek to inspire, raise the outcome, and lift the quality or IS teaching with this article

Application of LEGO Mindstorms Kits for Teaching Mechatronics Engineering

One of the major educators’ challenges is to teach the theoretical lessons with practical examples that can be taught in the classroom or teaching laboratories. The application of these examples will face a major problem for students in engineering: the difficulty of understanding and seeing how a mechatronic device works in everyday life. This requires the use of tools that enable the construction of different low cost prototypes to assist in student learning. Another challenge to educators is the need to motivate students during the lessons and to present models that students can make and develop on their own. Within this context this paper presents a pedagogic proposition based on the use of LEGO Mindstorms kits to teach practical lab activities in a mechatronics engineering course. The objective is to develop teaching methodologies with the use of these LEGO kits in order to motivate the students and also to promote a higher interdisciplinarity, by proposing projects that unify different disciplines. Thus, the paper is divided into three parts according to the educational experiences implemented in the course of mechatronics engineering at the Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil. The first part presents the use of the kits in robotics discipline. The second part presents the use of the virtual kits in the Computer Aided Design discipline with zero-cost. The third part presents a multi-disciplinary project EDROM in mechatronics using LEGO kits