6|18|2010 SIUE hosts 2010 Global Robotics Conference, July 7-11
Greetings,
Jerry Weinberg,
Professor and Department of Computer Science Chair |
It's an exciting time to learn about robotics at SIUE. The University, through the SIUE School of Engineering, is hosting this year's Global Conference on Educational Robotics from July 7-11. As part of this event, the International Botball Tournament also will be held on campus. Check out this e-Newsletter to learn more about what's in store on campus this summer.
Many of the robotics events are open to the public and free to watch. Feel free to stop by.
I hope to see you on campus!
Sincerely,
Jerry Weinberg
SIUE Hosts Global Robotics Conference The SIUE School of Engineering will be the center of attention in the Botball world July 7-11 when the Global Conference on Educational Robotics (GCER) takes the Midwest by storm.
The GCER is an annual event which draws middle school and high school students, educators, robotics enthusiasts, and professionals from around the world to connect with peers, discuss technology-related ideas, and cheer on their favorite teams during two exciting autonomous robot tournaments.
“We’re expecting 50-60 teams of students for the competition portion of the GCER,” said Jerry Weinberg, professor of computer science and chair of that department in the SIUE School of Engineering. “We have teams from Kuwait and Poland, along with several teams from throughout the United States. We are so excited to host this global event on the SIUE campus.”
BotBall is a competition that engages middle and high school aged students in a team-oriented robotics competition based on national science education standards. Students prepare for a BotBall event by designing, programming and building robots in a hands-on project that reinforces their learning.
In addition to the GCER, the four days include:
• The International Botball Robotics Tournament—for middle and high school teams to show off their
robotics expertise to the general public
• The Kiss Institute for Practical Robotics (KIPR) Open Robotics Tournament—a robotics competition for
college-age competitors and beyond, also open to the public
During the four-day event, guest speakers will include:
• Pam Gay, research associate lecturer, SIUE Department of Physics
Space Exploration and the Role of Robotics
• Jeffrey Rice, application architect and a vice president at The Boeing Co.
Robotics in the Aerospace Industry / How Boeing Utilizes Robotics
• James McLurkin, assistant professor, Rice University
Developing Small Robots as Wireless Networks
Educators and students will be presenting papers at the four-day event. “The teachers will be sharing new techniques proposed for the robotics classroom but the students also are encouraged to submit papers with their own views about robotics,” Weinberg said.
Conner Ruhl (left) and Megan McKinney from Swansea participated in the
regional Botball tournament in April, 2010.
Robots to “Clean Up” Oil Spill
“Cleaning up an oil spill is the theme of this competition,” said Jerry Weinberg, professor of computer science and chair of that department in the SIUE School of Engineering. “It’s a timely topic even though it was created several months ago before the disaster currently occurring in the Gulf of Mexico.” He is referring to Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig, leased to BP oil, which exploded April 20 and has been sending untold amounts of oil into the Gulf.
In the GCER competition, robots will be programmed to help clean up a simulated oil spill in a “lake,” which also will involve wildlife clean-up. “An earthquake has occurred and the robots will be used to absorb the oil slick and help clean the ‘ducks’ that use the lake,” he said. “The ducks will need to be moved by the robots to a cleaning area and then moved again to a ‘cleaned wetlands area.’
“The robots also will move sponges to various areas of the lake,” Weinberg said. “The sponges represent absorbents to be used to clean the ‘oil spill.’”
Robots Go to School
Teaching robotics in the middle schools and high schools caught on in the late 1990s, according to Jerry Weinberg, professor of computer science at SIUE and chair of that department. “In 1998, new smaller and inexpensive computer technology was created and that made it possible to bring that technology into the classroom.” Since then, hands-on robotics projects have become useful educational tools across a variety of subjects, he said.
Robots are integrated systems comprised of interdependent electrical, mechanical and computational components. Because of their multidisciplinary nature, the study of robotics in the classroom has become a valuable tool for the practical, hands-on application of concepts in various STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) topics at the K-12 and undergraduate educational levels.
“As the technology has improved over the past 12 years, it has allowed students to learn faster and more on their own,” Weinberg said. “And, we have seen a 10-percent upswing in students majoring in all types of engineering since 1998. We’d like to think robotics had a hand in that.”
Weinberg has been instrumental in involving local high schools in Botball tournaments on the SIUE campus, which has grown to include regional and Midwest tournaments for the past four years and now the international tournament coming in July.
“The KISS Institute has been watching our activities over the years and they’ve seen how the program has grown,” Weinberg said. “They’ve seen the potential and that’s why they decided to bring the international tournament to Edwardsville.”
NSF Grant Helps Make Brain Pack For Robots A Reality
Jerry Weinberg, professor of computer science and chair of that department in the SIUE School of Engineering, and William Yu, an associate professor in the same department, have been creating a “Brain Pack” for walking robots. The study is being funded by a $500,000 NSF grant, and the project is now in its second phase.
The two educators are working in partnership with Kim Wheeler and Robin Knight of RoadNarrows LLC to create the new “Brain Pack.”
Since 1999, Weinberg and Yu have been instrumental in bringing middle school, high school and college students together from throughout the region to study robotics and participate in robotics competitions.
The NSF grant, “General Robot Controller for Legged Mobile Robots with Integrated Open Source Software,” will help develop a computer backpack or “Brain Pack” for two-, four-, and six-legged robots for teaching science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses.
“The Brain Pack will provide an easy way to program a computer controller that connects sensors, such as foot touch sensors, to give a robot the ‘sense’ of walking and a color camera to give the robot ‘eyesight,’” Weinberg said.
“It will be a general controller that can be used on any legged robot, providing it with sensors and computing power that walking robots on the market currently do not have.”
Hands-on robotics projects have become useful educational tools across a variety of subjects, Weinberg pointed out.
“Robots are integrated systems comprised of interdependent electrical, mechanical, and computational components. Because of their multidisciplinary nature, the study of robotics in the classroom has become a valuable tool for the practical, hands-on application of concepts in various STEM topics at the K-12 and undergraduate educational levels.
“While there are wheeled robots that are easy to use for K-12 and undergraduate educators, there are no legged robot platforms with easy to use hardware and software,” Weinberg said.
“The Brain Pack will have ‘plug-and-play’ sensors with straightforward software modules developed specifically for use in the classroom.”
Weinberg recently conducted the Greater St. Louis Botball Tournament on the SIUE campus in April, where some 200 students, along with their teachers and parents from 20 schools throughout the Midwest, participated in the event. “This was a regional robotics competition for a national tournament conducted by the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics (KIPR),” Weinberg said.
The 2010 Global Conference on Educational Robotics (GCER) will take place on the SIUE campus in July.
“Our regional tournament in April started with a student/teacher workshop on building and programming robots and ended in an exciting head-to-head tournament seven weeks later,” Weinberg explained. This was the fourth regional robotics tournament held at SIUE. The GCER in July will be the first time it has been conducted at SIUE.
Kim Wheeler-Smith and Robin Knight are the co-founders of RoadNarrows LCC in Loveland, Colo. They earned engineering and mathematics degrees focused on robotics and computational intelligence, which led them to create a company to provide mobile robots to educators and researchers.
“The primary mission of RoadNarrows is to participate in the robotics revolution by developing, manufacturing, and offering hardware and software platforms for purchase to further technical education and to enable related research and development,” Weinberg said.
“The partnership between SIUE and RoadNarrows is key to the successful development of the Brain Pack innovation. The educators at SIUE have considerable experience in developing curricula and software for using robots in the classroom, and RoadNarrows has similarly considerable experience in engineering and marketing robot hardware for educators.
For more information, contact Professor Weinberg, (618) 650-2368. For more information about the GCER and Botball, visit the website: www.botball.org or for information about SIUE’s robotics program, visit the website: www.siue.edu/robotics.