Visible to the public Cyber Makerspace - Jan 2022Conflict Detection Enabled

Submitted by Katie Dey on Wed, 01/05/2022 - 4:57pm

PI: Ákos Lédeczi

HARD PROBLEM(S) ADDRESSED

While educational robotics and makerspaces are useful to modern STEM education, they introduce both physical and economic barriers to entry. By creating a “cyber makerspace,” a simulated, networked environment, we can facilitate instruction on cyber-physical systems and their security and related topics while reducing cost and complexity. The approach will facilitate reaching audiences from traditionally underrepresented groups. It also supports remote learning, an especially important feature due to the current pandemic.

 

PUBLICATIONS

  • D. Jean, B. Broll, G. Stein, A. Ledeczi, “Your Phone as a Sensor: Making IoT Accessible for Novice Programmers,” Frontiers of Education Conference, October, 2021
  • Brian Broll, Akos Ledeczi , Gordon Stein , Devin Jean , Corey Brady, Shuchi Grover, Veronica Catete, and Tiffany Barnes, “Removing the Walls Around Visual Educational Programming Environments,” IEEE VL/HCC Conference, October, 2021
  • Gordon Stein and Akos Ledeczi, “Enabling Collaborative Distance Robotics Education for Novice Programmers,” IEEE VL/HCC Conference, October, 2021
  • Devin Jean and Akos Ledeczi, “Using Mobile Devices and Visual Programming to Introduce IoT in the Classroom,” Technology Demonstration, IEEE VL/HCC Conference, October, 2021, Best Showcase Award

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

In this quarter, we focused on working on refining our tools and presenting our results at various conferences. We continued the development of a Python-based environment that enables students to write Python programs that access the services and features provided by the NetsBlox server. Students will be able to move from the block-based user interface of NetsBlox to this new environment with a gentle learning curve: the aim to preserve many of the block-based features that they are used to: sprites, the stage, events, the concurrency model, etc., but they can implement their scripts in Python. Hence, they will be able to use the physical and virtual robots with all the cybersecurity features as well as PhoneIoT from Python. We have also worked on a revised version of the virtual robotics environment; one that will work in the browser and hence, will not require installing a separate executable. Another significant advantage is the seamless integration with the NetsBlox programming environment. Finally, we are preparing an application to the State of Tennessee for a new high school computer science course that will include all the tools and curriculum that we have developed under this project.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTS

We made two presentations at the annual Snap!Shot workshop attended by many high school teachers (https://www.snapcon.org/conferences/snapshot2021/schedule/events):

  • PyBlox: A Snappy Python Environment by Devin Jean
  • Virtual Robots in the Browser by Gordon Stein

EDUCATIONAL ADVANCES

As the main focus of the project is education, all of our accomplishments listed in this report contribute to educational advances.

Groups: