Course Information

Course Homepage

http://www.cs.middlebury.edu/~schar/courses/cs1020-w08/

Time and Place

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 9 AM - noon
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 632
Lab phone: 443-3478

Instructors

Daniel Scharstein
MBH 633
443-2438

schar

middlebury.edu

Alan Lim '09

alim

middlebury.edu

Jeff Wehrwein '08

jwehrwei

middlebury.edu

Office Hours

One of us will usually be available for help in lab Sunday and Tuesday-Thursday evenings from 7:30 until 10 pm. We will also drop by the lab at other times. Individual meetings can be set up by appointment. If you need help, please feel free to contact any of us.

Text (required)

"CSCI 1020 - Lego Robot Design Studio - Course Pack", available at the campus store.

Course Description

In this intensive introductory course, you will design and build robots out of LEGO parts, sensors, motors, and Handy Boards (palm-sized computers), and then program your creations to do your bidding. We start by learning some fundamental skills in the context of building and experimenting with a simple robot known as Sciborg. Then, working in small teams, you will design, build, and program a number of robots, culminating in a creative final project, which you will demonstrate to the college community in a "Talent Show" (scheduled in the MBH Great Hall for Monday, January 28, 11 AM - 1 PM).

Some of the concepts and skills you can expect to learn in this course include: simple programming (sequencing, conditionals, loops, procedure calls, concurrency), procedural abstraction, basic electronics (voltage, power, motors, sensors), fundamental mechanics (building robust structures, friction, gearing), hypothesis testing and debugging, divide-and-conquer strategies for problem solving, modularity and abstraction, the value of simplicity and robustness, as well as creating web pages.

Grading

Active participation in class and completion of all projects is expected. You must attend all 12 class/lab meetings. Your grade will be determined as follows:

	Attendance and class participation	20%
	Quizzes (3 total, on Mondays)	20%
	Homework (daily)	30%
	Final project	25%
	Cleanup	5%

Course outline

Part 1 (Fri 1/4 - Wed 1/9): Lego design, mechanics, gears, sensors, simple programming, contest 1
Part 2 (Fri 1/11 - Wed 1/16): Advanced programming, more Lego design, contest 2
Part 3 (Fri 1/18 - Mon 1/21): More design and programming, creating web pages, contest 3
Part 4 (Wed 1/23 - Wed 1/30): Final projects, presentations, talent show, clean up