Robots in CS1: Overview, Bluetooth, Tone Generation, and Testing with eSpeak

Henry Walker
Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Mathematics Grinnell College

Stevenson Hall 1300
12:00 PM - 12:50 PM

As the Computer Science Curriculum continues to evolve at Sonoma State University, a new approach for CS 115, Programming I, is being offered for one section in Spring 2022. Continuing long-standing themes, fundamental concepts (e.g., from the University Catalog) continue, including imperative problem solving, variables and expressions, conditional statements, iteration, simple I/O, program organization, program style and maintainability, and structure programming. However, four elements are rather different from recent offerings of the course:

• Programs utilize the C programming language (e.g., neither Python nor C++).
• The control of robots serves as an on-going application theme.
• With the use of C, considerable attention is devoted to low-level elements of computing (e.g., the run-time stack, addressing, and data representation).
• The course follows a lab-based pedagogy, in which lectures and labs will be integrated---students work collaboratively on a new lab almost every day (about 40 labs for the semester).

As background, this course has evolved with development by the speaker with several student teams since Summer 2011, and the approach has been used in introductory courses at Grinnell College, the University of the South, Williams College, and the University of Puget Sound.

This talk with begin with an overview of the course and a demonstration of some robot capabilities.  The presentation will continue with a discussion of selected technical elements, including basics of Bluetooth communication, tone generation with both blocking and non-blocking commands, and the use of a speech synthesizer as part of program testing.