Engaging Computing: Makin

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Engaging ComputingMakin It Realfor Kids and
Undergrads

• Fred G. Martin
• University of Massachusetts Lowell

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Overview

• Computational design primitives
• Projects/applications/ideas for
• Elementary school
• Teenagers
• High school and college

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P-Brick/Handy Board/LEGO RCX Brick/Cricket
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Computational Jewelry

• Worked in 4th grade classroom in Smithfield, RI
• With Mary Lurgio, a teacher accomplished with
  project-based learning
• And Denis Coffey, an engineer educator

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Computational Jewelry

• The idea build necklaces that would perform
  personality correlations
• Inspired by MIT Media Lab Thinking Tag project
  (Rick Borovoy)

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Four Questions

• Are you a girl?
• Are you left-handed?
• Do you have pets?
• Are you 9 yrs. old or younger?

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Boolean Algebra
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Implementation
Little expansion board Goes your lapel Has
outputs for 7 lights
Wear the Cricket on your wrist, Aim it at your
friend and they can Communicate with infrared
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Logo Programming
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Computational Jewelry
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Computational Jewelry
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Computational Jewelry
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UML DESIGNCAMP

• 1 month of week-long design-oriented classes for
  teenagers
• Shipwreck Electronics,Kinetic Sculpture,
  Sea-Mobiles, Electronics Music, etc
• Created and run by Douglas Prime,
  www.designcamp.org

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Animatronics Camp
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Animatronic Dog (2 of 3)
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Animatronics Dog (3 of 3)
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Happy Halloween!
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Animatronics Camp
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Robot Contests(HS College)

• Botball
• Egghunt
• Trinity Fire-Fighting

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Botball

• National design contest for middle and HS kids
  run by KIPR.org
• 13 regional contests 1 national
• Focuses on kids doing the engineering themselves

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Egghunt
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Trinity Fire-Fighting
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Big Teams Big Robots

• Big team is gt 3 people
• Big robot is too big to step on
• Such as

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Power Wheels!
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When its big

• Technical integration is hard
• Team dynamics can be hard
• Physics matters!

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The Steering
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Motors Need Many Amps
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Demos Dont Always Work
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Calcomp Pen Plotters
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Student Work
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Spiral
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Midpoint Fractal
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Random Walk 1
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Random Walk 2
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Design Process

• Run the program a bunch of times, capturing
  output to named files
• Preview files on-screen, choosing nice ones to
  print
• Then we thought

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Each one is an original
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Portrait Engravings

• Work done by Karthik Ramanathan
• Roland EGX-300 Engraving Machine a
  computer-controlled Dremel tool
• Speaks HPGL just like the pen plotters
• Convert bitmap image into grid of variable depth
  drill hits

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Portrait Engravings
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In Closing

• Writing code is fun
• Writing code that controls stuff is fun
• Writing code that controls stuff is a good way to
  learn how to write code.