This the droid I've been playing with...

I have been fortunate to be able to get  Aldebaran NAO robots (https://plus.google.com/100795863694331917596/about or https://www.aldebaran.com/en) and have a play. 

Funding for these came through matched STEM investment from HEFCE (http://www.hefce.ac.uk/). Bought for teaching, especially around the growing area of Social Robotics but also for outreach and in-reach activities.

These are very cute but very well featured robots and also out of the box they are engaging. For reason, before they were fully set-up,  I had my first opportunity today to try an Aldebaran NAO robot as a teaching tool in an Artificial Intelligence (AI) class on Thursday 17th December 2015. The session was an end of term activity around summarising what we did in the AI class so far and questions.  A question came up around AI and it's impact on society. Perfect opportunity to bring in a social robot - especially as a precursor for when we include a session on social robotics next term.

Currently I am playing with them a little more. Two have being partially set-up now name "Red" and "Smurf". 

 The video link below shows "Red" in action (Walking holding the hand of my son; sitting down and standing up on command - some of the time.)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BhHJhGmXJc

I would love to hear from others what they have being doing with these robots or other robots for that matter. Please comment below.


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.

Ohbot a social robot

Recently I built an OhBot (http://ohbot.weebly.com/); a robot face (see picture to the left - I'll fixed the cross-eyes later). This cool little kit actually comes with some very nice software, that includes face tracking and a Scratch-like blocks programming language.

One bit of advice is put as aside several hours to do this, my experience is takes quite a while to build (that might just be me though). It is worth it, when you see the head, eyes, etc moving it is very engaging. 

The site has links to all the software needed and some very useful sample programs.

This is nice engaging robot that comes with a user-friendly programming language. The finished robot reminds me a bit of Cynthia Braziel's Kismet robot (http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-group/kismet/kismet.html) from MIT in the 1990s. So this might also be a good introduction to the area of social robotics and, as at the time of writing this, only £99, a relative inexpensive way into this area.

.All views are those of the author and should not be seen as the views of any organisation the author is associated with.

Minecraft and Hour of Code

Minecraft | Code.org:





This is really good fun. Taken from the code.org using Minecraft to develop programming skills.

go to https://code.org/mc to play with it.



'via Blog this'

All views are those of the author and should not be seen as the views of any organisation the author is associated with.

Master the art of JavaScript with Star Wars characters | JavaScript | Creative Bloq

Master the art of JavaScript with Star Wars characters | JavaScript | Creative Bloq: "With computer programming becoming an increasingly important skill to learn, it makes sense that code is introduced to people at a young age. Non-profit Code.org makes code more accessible to students, and its latest offering is this Star Wars themed tutorial.

By guiding the popular Star Wars: The Force Awakens BB8 droid with drag-and-drop blocks, users can get a hang of basic JavaScript commands"


To read more: http://www.creativebloq.com/javascript/master-art-javascript-star-wars-characters-111517816




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Robots from junk and Computational Thinking

A recent presentation as part of the Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies, University of Northampton Research Seminar series, looking a on going project within the Department.

Junkbots has been a ongoing and ever evolving project since 2009 around the use of 'junk' as part of activities to developing skills in STEM subjects. In particular in the presentation (below) shows the links between these activities and Computational Thinking were discussed.

Junkbots and computational thinking from Scott Turner

All views are those of the author and should not be seen as the views of any organisation the author is associated with.

Code Combat - fun way to learn Python

Site: http://codecombat.com/

This is another addictive website where to play you must code; in this case a combat game with varying levels. 

The right-hand side of the screen has a place to write some code. From the start the problems/levels are engaging activities such as  navigating a maze,  defending a village (as above), choosing different response to different enemies. It is difficult to not play with this for ages.






All views are those of the author and should not be seen as the views of any organisation the author is associated with.

Problem-solving publications

Examples of work on problem-solving as part of computational thinking.

• Problems first second and third (Gary Hill, Scott J Turner), In International Journal of Quality Assurance in Engineering and Technology Education (IJQAETE), volume 3, pp. 88--109, 2014. [university repository]
• Greenfoot in problem solving and artificial intelligence (Scott J Turner), In 10th China-Europe International Symposium on Software Engineering Education (CEISEE), 2014. [university repository]
• • Junkbots (Scott J Turner), In Higher Education Academy Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (HEA STEM) Annual Learning and Teaching Conference 2013: Where Practice and Pedagogy Meet, 2013. [university repository]
• • Is it visual? The importance of a problem solving module within a computing course (K A Kariyawasam, Scott J Turner, Gary Hill), In Computer Education, volume 10, pp. 9--11, 2012. [university repository]
• • Problems first (Gary Hill, Scott J Turner), In Software Industry-Oriented Education Practices and Curriculum Development: Experiences and Lessons, Matthew Hussey, Bing Wu, Xu Xiaofei (eds.), IGI Global, Hershey Pa., pp. 110--126, 2011. [university repository]
  • Is it visual? Problem solving evaluation (K Kariyawasam, Scott J Turner), In Learning Global - Fourth Learning \& Teaching Conference, 2011. [university repository]
• • Innovative use of robots and graphical programming in software education (Scott J Turner, Gary Hill), In 6th China-Europe International Symposium on Software Industry Oriented Education (CEISIE2010), 2010. [university repository]
• • Robots in problem solving in programming (Scott J Turner, Gary Hill, Jonathan P Adams), In Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Information and Computer Sciences 9th 1-day Teaching of Programming Workshop, 2009. [university repository] 
• • Problem solving and creativity for undergraduate computing and engineering students: the use of robots as a developmental tool (Jonathan P Adams, Scott J Turner), In Creating Contemporary Student Learning Environments, 2008.[university repository]
  • Robots and problem solving (Scott J Turner, Jonathan P Adams), In 9th Annual Conference of the Subject Centre for Information and Computer Sciences, Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Information and Computer Sciences, Newtownabbey, pp. 16, 2008. [university repository]
  • Problem solving and creativity for undergraduate engineers: process or product? (Jonathan P Adams, Scott J Turner), InEE2008 - the International Conference on Innovation Good Practice and Research in Engineering Education Conference Proceedings, Higher Education Academy, Loughborough, 2008. [university repository]
  • Problem solving and creativity for undergraduate engineers: findings of an action research project involving robots(Jonathan P Adams, Scott J Turner, Stefan Kaczmarczyk, Philip Picton, P Demian), In International Conference on Engineering Education (ICEE 2008) - New Challenges in Engineering Education and Research in the 21st Century, International Network for Engineering Education \& Research (iNEER), 2008. [university repository]
  • Robotics within the teaching of problem-solving (Scott J Turner, Gary Hill), In ITALICS, volume 7, pp. 108--119, 2008.[university repository]
• • Developing problem-solving teaching materials based upon Microsoft Robotics Studio (Scott J Turner), In Innovative Teaching Development Fund Dissemination Day, 2007. [university repository]
  • Developing problem-solving teaching material based upon Microsoft Robotics Studio (Scott J Turner), In Proceedings of 8th Annual Conference of the Subject Centre for Information and Computer Sciences, Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) Subject Centre, Ulster, pp. 151, 2007. [university repository]
  • Innovative Teaching Development Fund project 2007 progress report. (Scott J Turner), In missing booktitle, 2007. [university repository]
  • Development Fund project 2006-2007 progress report. (Scott J Turner), In missing booktitle, 2007. [university repository]
  • Robots in problem-solving and programming (Scott J Turner, Gary Hill), In Proceedings of 8th Annual Conference of the Subject Centre for Information and Computer Sciences, Higher Education Academy Information and Computer Sciences Centre, Ulster, pp. 82--85, 2007. [university repository]
  • Improving problem solving and encouraging creativity in engineering undergraduates (Jonathan P Adams, Stefan Kaczmarczyk, Philip Picton, P Demian), In Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering Education, Springer, New York, 2007. [university repository]
• • The inclusion of robots within the teaching of problem solving - preliminary results (Scott J Turner, Gary Hill), In 7th Annual Conference of the Subject Centre for Information and Computer Sciences, Hazel Steede (eds.), Higher Education Academy Subject Network for Information and Computer Sciences, Dublin, pp. 241--242, 2006. [university repository]

All views are those of the author and should not be seen as the views of any organisation the author is associated with.