Teams of University have mentored middle and high school students primary and secondary school students participate in one of from Durham Public Schools as part of the Duke three competitions: rescue, dance, or soccer. Rescue teams RoboCupJunior program, a project-oriented, team-based build and program a robot capable of navigating a course academic enrichment program. The objective of the while identifying and rescuing victims by following lines program is to foster interest and competence in computing, and responding to color cues. Dance teams choreograph a science, and mathematics, while simultaneously dance routine using robots they build and decorate, developing problem-solving skills, enabling creative costumes they prepare, and music they select. Soccer teams thinking and design, and providing a domain for build and program two robots, which then face off against application of scientific concepts. Robotics is a popular other teams' robots in a soccer match. Winners of regional domain for attracting students to computing and competitions are eligible to attend the annual RoboCup engineering (Sklar, Parsons 2002) and can be used in World Finals, held at various locations around the globe.

Integrating robotics activities in science curriculum provides rich opportunities to engage students in real world science and help them to develop conceptual understanding of physics principles through the process of investigation, data analysis, engineering design, and construction. In addition, students become more confident learners and develop better problem-solving and teamwork skills. In this paper we describe a successful use of LEGO® MINDSTORMS® in designing robotics-based activities for teaching high school physics classes. Students design and perform novel science investigations with a toolset that helps them achieve a high reproducibility in their experimental designs. Several example projects that utilize LEGO MINDSTORMS are presented.

Roboticists need to have a solid understanding of hardware and software. The standard computer science education in the United States, however, tends to teach students only about software. To remedy this situation, we explore new ways of teaching them about hardware in a playful way. Realizing that pinball machines are simple robots, we have developed a pinball machine interface between a PC and a recent Lord of the Rings pinball machine, which enables students to implement pinball games and gain knowledge of hardware and interface programming in the process. This paper describes both our pinball machine interface and our experience developing it. As far as we know, this is the first time that anyone has managed to control an existing pinball machine completely.

As educators, we have high hopes for Electronic Tangibles (ETs), we expect ETs to: Interest more students in the study of computing Broaden students' views of computing Invite non-majors to learn something about the computing Attract students to computer science as a major Help students learn about particular ETs Attract students to our classes by incorporating a flashy ET in the course material Improve student understanding of some difficult topics Maintain student interest throughout the class However some important questions arise: Can we and should we extend these benefits throughout the K-20 curriculum? And if we can't, are we guilty of bait-and-switch?

This paper discusses the development of a sequence of undergraduate courses forming the core curriculum in the Robotics Engineering (RBE) B.S. program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). The laboratory robotics kit developed for the junior-level courses is presented in detail. The platform is designed to be modular and cost-effective and it is suitable for laboratory based robotics education. The system is ideal not only for undergraduate coursework but also may be adapted for graduate and undergraduate research as well as for exposing K-12 students to STEM.

In this paper we show how the shape of a 2D-landmark configuration can be encoded based on qualitative 1D-ordering information and how relevant geometric shape properties of a landmark configuration (strictly based on ordering information) can be detected by a sequence of view-based snapshots. Furthermore we show how shape of landmark configurations supports view-based localization tasks specially in the face of erroneous and missing sensor information.

In 3 experiments, participants learned bone anatomy by using a hand-held controller to rotate an on-screen 3D bone model. The on-screen bone included (OR condition) or did not include (no-OR condition) orientation references—visible lines marking its axes. The learning task involved rotating the on-screen bone to match target orientations. Learning outcomes were assessed by having participants identify anatomical features from different orientations. On the learning task, the OR group performed more accurately, directly, and quickly than the control group and high-spatial individuals outperformed low-spatial individuals. Assessments of anatomy learning indicated that under more challenging conditions, ORs elevated learning by low-spatial individuals to near that of high-spatial individuals. In Experiment 3, orientation references were shown to help learners avoid disorientation due to the symmetrical shape of the object.

This paper presents a brief summary of a number of different approaches to the semantic representation and automated interpretation of engineering data. In this context, engineering data is represented as Computer-Aided Design (CAD) files, 3D models or assemblies. Representing and reasoning about these objects is a highly interdisciplinary problem, requiring techniques that can handle the complex interactions and data types that occur in the engineering domain. This paper presents several examples, taken from different problem areas that have occupied engineering and computer science researchers over the past 15 years. Many of the issues raised by these problems remain open, and the experience of past efforts can serve to identify fertile opportunities for investigation today.

Medical experts routinely need to identify the shapes of anatomical structures, and surgeons report that they depend substantially on touch to help them with this process. In this paper, we discuss possible reasons why touch may be especially important for anatomical shape recognition in surgery, and why in this domain haptic cues may be at least as informative about shape as visual cues. We go on to discuss modern surgical methods, in which these haptic cues are substantially diminished. We conclude that a potential future challenge is to find ways to reinstate these important cues and to help surgeons recognize shapes in the restricted sensory conditions of minimally invasive surgery.

The rapid uptake of mobile phones, cheaper and more Given the potentially large number of users of the Spoken widespread mobile connectivity, and increasing familiarity Web system and the likelihood of shared information needs with technology are driving Internet adoption in developing and significant user similarities, we expect considerable improvements nations, but major hurdles still remain. First, today's Internet in audio navigation from using CF. is mostly in English and is thus largely inaccessible to A useful distinction among CFbased approaches arises billions of people for whom English is not a native or second from the types of data used to associate users to products language. Second, today's Internet is accessible largely and other items. In some scenarios, users may provide explicit through text-based technologies (web browsing, email, text feedback about their interest in products through ratings.