Attracting Students to the Computing Disciplines: A Case Study of a Robotics Contest

Uvais Qidwai; Ryan Riley; Sayed El-Sayed

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Social and Behavioral Sciences

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 102 (2013) 520 - 531

6th International Forum on Engineering Education (IFEE 2012)

Attracting Students to the Computing Disciplines: A Case Study of

a Robotics Contest

Uvais Qidwai*, Ryan Riley , Sayed El-Sayed

Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Qatar University, PO Box 2713, Doha, Qatar

Abstract

Guiding high school students towards a specific career choice is one of the challenges that parents, teachers, and career-counselors alike have to participate in with a lot of involvement. While career-fairs, open-houses, and other such activities from universities play an important role in attracting students to specific programs, it has been felt over the years that students tend to choose relatively easy majors and avoid computing and similar disciplines due to the involvement of programming and mathematics. This trend has affected Computer Science programs throughout the world in different proportions. In this paper we would like to share our experiences with an effort to make high school students more aware of the computing disciplines by involving them in doing something that belongs to the core of this discipline, i.e., developing correct logic and computational infrastructure, in a friendly and fun way. One well established fact is that if these young minds are motivated to go for higher education in computing, engineering or STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics)-based programs of study, they can find their own path and would know it better as to what would be a better line of career for them. The presented experiences are related to a set of "Computing Contests" that the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Qatar University has been holding for the past five years. Initially, it was designed as a website design contest, but after a couple of years' experience, the interest was observed to be declining. The contest theme was then changed to robotics using the LEGO Mindstorms' NXT kits and giving simple challenges to the students in which the emphasis was on developing robust logic for computational implementation. Unlike the existing robotic contests in the region, including First LEGO League (FLL), National Robotics Olympiad (NRO), and Bot-Ball, the actual contest track was unknown to the participants until the contest day. This implied that the robots were to be programmed for certain general rules while the actual implementation sequence of the rules was not known. In fact, the emphasis was not given to the mechanical design but on generic sensory-perception based actuation mechanism that was to be programmed in order to solve the given challenge in minimum time.

The paper presents results that show a positive change of trend from the schools' side that reflects the interest taken by the schools, their participation, level of work performed, and what benefits were achieved by the students and their schools. The findings are presented in this paper using quantitative as well as qualitative data and shows that the robotics contests were

* Corresponding author.

E-mail address: uqidwai@qu.edu.qa

Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Professor Dr Mohd. Zaidi Omar, Associate Professor Dr Ruhizan Mohammad Yasin, Dr Roszilah Hamid, Dr Norngainy Mohd. Tawil, Associate Professor Dr Wan Kamal Mujani, Associate Professor Dr Effandi Zakaria. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.768

successful in motivating students to make the computing domain as their major for university studies as well as in making them learn some of the most beneficial skills needed in the engineering and computing programs; objective programming, and outcome-based system design.

Selectionand/orpeer-reviewunderresponsibility ofProfessorDrMohd.Zaidi Omar,AssociateProfessorDr Ruhizan Mohammad Yasin, DrRoszilah Hamid, DrNorngainyMohd.Tawil,AssociateProfessorDr Wan Kamal Mujani, Associate Professor Dr Effandi Zakaria.

Keywords: Robotics, LEGO Mindstorms kits, Logic based computing, Team work, Computing Contest.

1. Introduction

Is there really a need to increase the enrollment to Computing disciplines by attracting more students to the related programs? On one hand, in recent years the projected shortage in personnel for positions in technology fields has been well documented. On the other hand the enrollments in the computing disciplines have been slowly rising. Figure 1 shows one such reported trend from Computing Research Association in Washington DC, USA:

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Fig. 1. Average CS Majoring Students Per CS Department in USA [1].

As can be seen from this figure, there was dip in enrollments in computing programs in general and CS in particular during the dot com bubble collapse during the early 2000's. However, the trend is quite encouraging from 2007 and onwards, showing a consistent rise in the enrollment and consequently the interest in these programs. This rise may be attributed to the advent of mobile computing, online gaming, and social networks. As the market trends show in various global financial sector analyses, these newer technologies are expected to grow in future and hence will create a large market for fresh computing graduates.

The Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Qatar University has been actively trying to attract more students in light of the global decline, especially among male students [1]. One initial finding was that many people are unaware of the differences between computer science/engineering and computer repair, which tends to undermine their perception of the major. In order to introduce the community, essentially high school students, it was planned to conduct Computing Contests every year in order to let the students come and participate in challenges related to the computing tasks. Initially, the contest was planned around the design of a

website whose theme was decided by the contestant. The contest picked up a bit in the beginning, but after couple of years, the quality and originality of the submissions decreased. Hence a more hands-on contest was sought. Robotics was found to be the most interesting one for all levels of students. However, the subject of robotics also has a strong link in the Mechanical design and electronic circuits, while the goal of the contest was to introduce students to programming and logic. A very convenient compromise was thought of by using the LEGO Mindstoms kits [2] for the design of the main body of a moving (car-like) robot to perform some intelligent tasks. Selection of this kit resolved the mechanical design issues since the construction of the shape of the robot became less complicated as the students can construct the body by using instructions which are publically available. In addition, the kits come with an easily programmable microcontroller based interface (the NXT brick), so the students do not need to worry about the electronic circuits needed to program and maneuver the robot. Hence, the main task of the students now reduces to the programming of the robot. The contest also focused on giving the flavor of Logical thinking and Objective-based coding for the Computing problem at hand. This resulted in less emphasis on the issues related to syntax and compiling of code. The Graphical user interface of the software that comes with the kits was found to be very useful in this regards.

At Qatar University, the trend of CS enrollment has been a bit dwindling during 2003-2009 periods especially in male students (Figure 2). However, some marked change has been observed in the later years in terms of enrollments and specifically the interest of male students has increased the program. The change in 2010 and 2011 is mainly attributed to the effort made by the Department to increase the enrollment to CS program using aggressive advertisements etc. But, the main factor that really introduced the domain, the environment, and the challenges of this field specifically within Qatar University umbrella, was the Computing Contest.

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Fig. 2. CS enrolment at Qatar University for Female students (solid line) and Male students (dashed line). Y-axis indicates the number of students enrolled in that year. Typical cap on a class size is 20-25.

2. The Contest

The most recent iteration of the contest was designed around the capabilities of the LEGO Mindstorms'

Educational kit (No. 9797) [3] with one additional (color) sensor [4]. Essentially, each team of two students from high schools were supposed to design a mobile robot with color-sensing capability that must make appropriate logical decisions based on what they encounter on the moving area, called the 'track'. Figure 3 shows one sample track that was provided to all the schools for their teams to practice on. The track was printed on a white hard-paper sheet (poster sheet) fixed on a hard surface (such as the floor).

The track is almost entirely composed of a triad line comprising of Red-Black-Blue colors in the same order. Part of the navigational logic building includes the detection of these colors in order to remain on track and keep following the lines in the course of movement. Decision points also appear when the Black color line in the middle is suddenly replaced with a small (6 cm) Green line, or a (10 cm long) Yellow line, or a (6 cm long) White line. Each of these indicates to the robot a specific decision point which it needs to consider and make appropriate actions. The team who finishes navigation of the entire track with all the required logical tasks covered in minimum time was considered as the winner.

The list of tasks to be performed by each robot is as follows:

1. Completing the Track: The robot should successfully follow the lines as it navigates the track.

2. The two colors: When the robot encounters a yellow line for the first time then it should turn left and identify two colors; one on floor and other on a wall and return to the track.

3. 3 Color Display: At the next yellow line, the robot must stop and spin three times with the name of the third color displayed on the screen of the brick. This depends on the RGB trio (Red, Green, and Blue). One color is on the floor, the other one is on the perpendicular wall. The robot should display the color which did not appear on either the floor or the wall.

4. Finishing: The robot must finish its run in the same color block (displayed in Figure 3) at the end of the track.

As can be seen from the above descriptions, that the actual goal of the contest was to enable students to learn and practice logic development skills with a mild touch of engineering design. The decision points and the sensor interfaces are all very practical skills needed in a number of fields of engineering and technology. Given the time and level of participants, the teams were restricted in terms of the hardware components they can use in the design, i.e. only the LEGO kit and the graphical programming interface that comes with it. These restrictions put emphasis on the design of a more intelligent and better software interface with sufficient problem solving skills, logical programming, and near-real-life exposure to solving an engineering problem.

Fig. 3. Sample Track used in the Contest.

2.1 LEGO Mindstorms

LEGO Mindstorms robotics systems have found their way into a lot of classrooms, from primary schools to universities. There are several reasons for the popularity of these robots as teaching tools. Most importantly, LEGO robots are fun. Secondly, the robot kits are very flexible in terms of building and programming. The included programming environment is easily accessible to any level of programmer. Finally, LEGO robots are surprisingly inexpensive and can be used in conjunction with other similar components and systems.

Building and programming LEGO robots is fun. While students are having fun, they can learn about mechanical design and computer programming. L EGO robots s currying around in a public space are sure to attract attention. LEGO robots are fun to watch, and even more fun to build and program. Never mind textbooks and tests; this is learning by doing. One of the major bottlenecks in any engineering discipline is the amount of frustration that a student goes through when whatever h e/she has designed doesn't work! With L EGO kit, this is reduced to almost zero since the design itself is very modular and extremely straight forward so that the student ca n concentrate on the logic without being burdened with the fears of components not responding or burning or the program not working, etc. The LEGO kit will work in one way or the but it will definitely work and do something. If it works the way it is supposed to in the very first attempt then t he reward is spontaneous. However, if the first attempt is not exactly w at it was expected to do then it gives the student some confidence at the design is good enough and maybe only some fine tweaking is necessary. This enhances the skills of debugging and error correction; some very important skills in almost every engineering discipline.

2.2 The LEGO Mindstorms Educational kit

The LEGO Mindstorms Educational kit is shown in Figure 4(a and b) . The heart of this kit is the NXT brick (Figure 4(c)) which is a very decent low speed, 32-bit ARM7 microcontroller [5] which has been designed and housed in the form of a LEGO Technic brick which can be used with any LEGO component. It provides four input ports for connecting sensors, and three output ports for connecting motors or lamps. Constructing a fully functional robot is as easy as building a toy with LEGO components. One such finished design is shown in Figure 4(d).

Fig. 4. (a) and (b) The LEGO Mindstorms Educational kit No. 9797, (c) The NXT microcontroller brick, and (d) a completed robotic vehicle

used in one of the workshop sessions.

Most participating teams in the contest were comprised of high schools (grade level is 10-12, inclusive) from the local public school system (Independent Schools) in Qatar and was following the National curriculum as prescribed by the Supreme Educational Council of Qatar. The subjects of robotics, graphical programming, and logic development are not substantial portions of the curriculum. Each participating team was given one LEGO kit. An introductory workshop was held where the contest was explained along with the basics of the parts connection and programming. Two months later, a follow-up workshop was conducted for answering real questions and issues that the students may have.

3. Programming the Robot

The programming is done in a unique, proprietary software environment where one does not need to write even a single line of code. Rather, programs are built by using the drag-and-drop blocks from the graphical libraries and connecting them in a logical order. The basis of this GUI SDK is GPL (Graphical Programming Language) which has been customized into the SDK environment with all the necessary blocks for controlling various aspects of the robot. A typical program would look like as shown in Figure 5.

Fig. 5. A typical program for LEGO Mindstorms line following robot.

During the workshop, the basic programming skills were developed through hands-on exercises and first hand interface experiences with sensors and motors. Students with no programming experience also showed interest and enthusiasm in the exercises and were able to start the programming task by themselves by the end of the workshops. Figure 6 shows some of the images from the contest.

4. Data Analysis:

In order to quantify the results obtained from this contest, following two data sources were utilized:

1. Participation Statistics.

2. Mentor Surveys.

The first source is essentially through the registration data which was compiled after gathering all the registration forms given to the teams, actual number of participants from the day of the contest, and comparison of these with the previous contest statistics. The second source was a post-contest survey system that was devised by the authors and was sent out electronically to the mentors of each team that registered. Figure 7 shows a screen shot of one of the questions in the survey. Various aspects were surveyed through these forms including improvements in programming and problem solving skills, robot building skills, team work, and mentors' perceptions on how the student interests were culminated.

Fig. 6. Some images of the robots and the tracks during the contest

4.1 Participation

In 2008, as part of a push to increase visibility and enrollment, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Qatar University started a website contest for students in secondary schools in Qatar. Students were encouraged to work in pairs and needed to be supervised by a staff mentor from their school. The contest was promoted through newspaper advertisements, word of mouth, and invitation letters sent to technology teachers in the schools. The same type of contest (with a different theme) was repeated in 2009 and 2010. In 2011, the department decided to change the contest to a robotics contest as described above. Due to the fact that robotics kits now needed to be purchased, the decision was made to eliminate the newspaper advertisements and instead apply the budget to the purchase of kits. Another robotics contest was repeated in 2012.

Please rate the level of knowledge gained by your students as a result of the contest

in the following areas:

None Small Increase Medium Increase Large Increase

Teamwork O O O ©

In your opinion, what impact did the contest have on your students' view of computing as a career?_

Choose one of the following answers

Fig. 7. Screen shots of the online survey.

Fig. 8. Participation statistics for number of students, schools, and mentors.

Figure 8 shows the number of students who participated in the computing contest over the last five years, in addition to the number of schools and the number of mentors. The chart columns on the left of the dashed line represent figures related to the website contest which was administered from 2008 to 2009 inclusive. To the right of the dashed line the columns represent figures related to the robotics contest. It is evident from the above chart that the robotics contest attracts more students, schools and mentors. It is our belief that the participation levels

could have been much higher if the duration of registration to the robotics contest was left open — as it was the case for the website contest. Due to resource management and scheduling of training workshops, w e have to limit the registration period. Our intention is to launch the contest and, as quickly as possible, embark on the training workshops . We declined a number of registration requests from new schools and/or from students from already registered schools, because these requests came after the registration deadline has passed. It is important to note that the robotics contest was not accompanied by a publicity campaign, other than a press conference for the launch event. The website contest enjoyed two newspapers advertisements per year in addition to the press event for the launch.

4.2 Mentor Survey

We surveyed the mentors of the 2012 teams regarding their percept ions of the impact of the contest on the students. The survey was available in both Arabic and English in order to minimize language problems in the results. We attempted to survey 42 mentors and received 17 responses. We asked the following questions:

1. Please rate the level of knowledge gained by your students in the following areas: Team work, Programming, Physical Robot Design, and Logical Skills.

2. What was the level of interest from the students from your school who participated?

3. In your opinion what impact did the contest have on your students' view of computing as a career?

The result of the survey are presented in Figures 9 and 10.

Fig. 9. Mentor's Perception of Skill Increases

As can be seen in Figure 9, all teachers perceived that their students had at least a medium gain for all skills. Overall," physical Robot Design" had the greatest gain while "Logical Skills" and "Programming" had more modest gains. This result is of particular interest to us because in designing the contest our goal was to minimize the amount of physical robot design required (we gave them instructions for a basic design) while instead focusing on the logic required for the program. From this we learn that in the future, further emphasis and instruction is required with regards to logical thinking and programming.

Fig.10. Mentor Perception of (a) Student Interest, and (b) Impact on Students View of Computing as a Career

Figure 10 shows the results of the perceptions of the mentors on the improvements in the students learning in terms of their interest in the field and possibility of pursuing computing as a career. As far as the students' interest is concerned, this should not be surprising, as uninterested students would be unlikely to join. However, it is valuable to point out that the previous website contest was assigned as a class project in some schools, and some of those students did not really have an interest in website design at all.

The student view of computing as a career choice is a particularly important metric for us, as students and their parents in Qatar tend to view computing as purely related to computer repair or even proficiency with Microsoft Office. A significant goal in running these contests is to break that perception. For the participants in the 2012 contest, the data indicates a positive impact was made.

5. Conclusion

In general, the robotics contest has been a big success for the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Qatar University. It provided a noticeable increase in participation over previous website contests, make a perceived impact on students computing skills, and has positively impacted their views of computing as a career. In the future, we plan to continue to develop and optimize the robotics contest by altering the types of tasks to be accomplished as well as by providing additional training in programming and logic. We believe that the use of robotics is a useful tool to help get students interested in computing majors.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support from Qatar University, Conoco Philips, and ict Qatar that

assisted in organizing the most recent iteration of the contest and the post-contest analysis. References

[1] http://cra.org/govaifairs/blog/2012/04/undergrad-computer-science-enrollments-rise-for-fourth-straight-year-cra-taulbee-report/

[2] http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx

[3] http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/product/lego_mindstorms_education_nxt_base_set/2095

[4] http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Color-Sensor-9694

[5] Dave Prochnow, Lego Mindstorms Nxt Hacker's Guide, McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics; 1 edition

Attracting Students to the Computing Disciplines: A Case Study of a Robotics Contest Academic research paper on "Computer and information sciences"

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