The Project
Art, Interactivity, and Robotics
Art, Interacticity and Robotics, often referred to as AIR, is a course in the CS department and is co-taught by CS and Art professor.
The goal of this course is to combine programming and aesthetics design. In this course, students will use materials such as wood and metal to construct a three-dimensional art piece. By incorporating electronic devices into the art piece, their work should be able to interact with the viewer.
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Students write computer programs to control the electronic devices, and the current technology used for the programs is the Arduino Programming Language and the Dagu Red Back Spider Board.
Spinning in Orbit. Student Project from CS102. Photo by: D.Welch
Motivation
Our main motivation for this project was the availability of microcontroller boards on the market that use the Python programming language. We wanted to know how transitioning to one of these technologies would change the class and if that is where we want the class to be headed.
Essentially- is the Arduino language and the Redback still the best option for this class?
The Process
Over the two terms we worked on the process, we learned a lot. We began by taking the AIR course on our own, working through the labs and assignments to learn how the technology functioned. This included learning a lot about circuits and electronics.
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Next, we completed the final project for the AIR course: making an interactive sculpture using the Redback boards. We learned about construction and using power tools.
At the end of fall term, we researched 2 alternative technologies, settling on the PyBoard and Raspberry Pi. We split into 2 pairs to further learn about the benefits and drawbacks of each.
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We remade our sculptures using the new technologies to learn more about how they functioned in comparison to the Redback board and Arduino programming language. We then presented our findings to the professors of the course, weighing the pros and cons of each board.
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Finally, we translated course assignments into corresponding assignments for a class for both technologies, and developed supplemental materials as needed for each.
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Next Steps
At this point, a technology to use in the AIR course has not been chosen. There are a lot of factors to weigh into this decision. The professors must decide how this class (and a possible advances class) will fit into the structure of the Computer Science major. A course using Python would be similar in many ways to CS111 (Introduction to Computer Science). Therefore, this course could either come after CS111, before CS111 or serve as a replacement for the course.
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The professors in charge of this decision are still considering whether they would like an advanced course, and if so, what that would look like, as all the technologies lend themselves to different types of courses.
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While the decision on technology is being made, we are working to create course materials including setup guides and labs for students in the course for both technologies. We are basing them off of the current materials used in the course.
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We are all very excited to see what happens with AIR in the future, and look forward to a technology decision being made.
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