Robots and Physical Computing

Taken from:  University of Northampton recognised for being one of a handful of institutions teaching and researching Blockchain The University of Northampton has been recognised as one of only a handful of Higher Education (HE) institutions worldwide which are teaching or carrying out Blockchain research. Blockchain is a shared, replicated ledger that underpins technology such as cryptocurrency, but also sets out to provide the foundation for the next generation of transactional applications. Blockchain analyst website  Diar  has included the University of Northampton in a  list of just 28 HE providers that teach aspects of Blockchain and/or conduct research into it . Northampton does both. Postgraduate students on the  MSc Computing course are taught elements of Blockchain , including a general introduction to the basic concepts, plus coding and programming techniques. Meanwhile, various Northampton academics, led by Senior Lecturer in Educati...

I have recently been teaching a module on Internet Programming on a MSc Computing programme (see related links), and was looking for a way to introduce a little bit of physical computing to finish of the module - micro:bits offer a route. So a bit of context; most of the students on the module had first degrees in either networking or software engineering; so before they start the module they are competent in programming with Javascript, HTML, CSS and PHP. Therefore the module looked to develop new areas such as introductory blockchain ,  virtual reality via the web (e.g. WebVR), using social media sources; but lastly looking at physical computing leading to an insight into the Internet of Things (IoT). As part of this last topic gaining some experience of programming and very simple networking was looked at using the micro:bit. An activity was produced where: they, in pairs, initially replicate some code and work out how it worked; they then took the code and experim...

A recently released book  Teaching Computing Unplugged in Primary Schools   edited by Helen Caldwell (University of Northampton) and Neil Smith (Open University) has a number of interesting chapters by authors who are passionate about how computing is taught in schools. The central theme is unplugged activities, without using computers, but still teach the fundamental of computational thinking. Ok, confession time. I co-wrote, along with Katharine Childs (Code Club), Chapter 3 Artists so I am biased here, but I believe in the central theme of Unplugged Computing. Computing, and Computational Thinking in general,  is not  just  about programming and using a computer (though using computers and  programming are vitally important to Computing) but it is also about many other things including problem-solving, being creative and working collaboratively. Chapter 3 is about linking these computational thinking ideas to produce visual art, by app...

Experimenting with an Aldebaran NAO robot - nicknamed Smurf - to get the robot to deliver a short welcome. The video below show the robot being simulated using the code in figure 1 and then shows the 'Smurf' actually carrying out the routine (the bottom video show this bit without the simulator). The only difference in the code on the simulator and the one running on the actual robot was an extra command was added at the start of the one on the robot to only start when the top of the head is tapped. figure 1. Choregraphe program for the routine. All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with.

Sometimes what I do as job can have some major personal pluses (I get to play with robots some of the time), one of these has been the opportunity to introduce people to social robots, and recently I have been lucky enough to managed to do this four times-   twice to my own computing students, but also to groups of primary school children in two events (see below).  Apart from it's what I enjoyed doing; the social robots we are starting to see are great, but there is so much more that could be done. Who is going to develop this - possibly one of these children? Why not? It has taken nearly 40 years to get from R2D2 on the screen to some of the social robots we are seeing launched now, in another 40 years we might have something as bright as R2D2 (R2D2 was always brighter than C3PO) . Why wouldn't one or more of these bright children or one of the students I teach, be the ones to contribute to this? They have the enthusiasm, with the changes in the National Curriculum in...

  PiJam  event on Saturday 16th April 2016, in Newton Building, University of Northampton, NN2 6JB. This is a free event, open to those who either want to found out more about the Raspberry Pi; want to share with others what they have done with the Pi; or just want to talk with others about them. Most of all (I hope) to have some fun. The event has been supported by the University of Northampton providing the rooms. Tickets (Free) are available at:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/northamptonshire-raspberry-jam-tickets-20886649531 Examples of possible 'show and tell ' items include: -Minecraft running on a Raspberry Pi with movement controlled with gesture control of an Star Wars styled X-Wing - Raspberry Pi controlling a 'junk robot' More updates to follow.  Tickets (Free) are available at:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/northamptonshire-raspberry-jam-tickets-20886649531 All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way b...