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RAPTOR - A Vehicle to Enhance Logical Thinking

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Conference

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Atlanta, Georgia

Publication Date

June 23, 2013

Start Date

June 23, 2013

End Date

June 26, 2013

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Software Applications in ET Programs

Tagged Division

Engineering Technology

Page Count

12

Page Numbers

23.1018.1 - 23.1018.12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--22403

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/22403

Download Count

1231

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Paper Authors

biography

Nikunja Swain P.E. South Carolina State University

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Dr. Swain is currently a Professor at the South Carolina State University. Dr. Swain has 25+ years of experience as an engineer and educator. He has more than 50 publications in journals and conference proceedings, has procured research and development grants from the NSF, NASA, DOT, DOD, and DOE and reviewed number of books on computer related areas. He is also a reviewer for ACM Computing Reviews, IJAMT, CIT, ASEE, and other conferences and journals. He is a registered Professional Engineer in South Carolina and ETAC of ABET reviewer for Electrical Engineering Technology and Computer Engineering Technology.

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Wanda Moses South Carolina State University

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James Allen Anderson P.E. South Carolina State University

biography

Cynthia T Davis SC State University

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EDUCATION
1979 B. S. Magna Cum Laude, Mathematics Education
Benedict College, Columbia, South Carolina

1982 M. S. Computer Science
Atlanta University, Atlanta Georgia

1992 - 1996 Additional Study, Mathematics
University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, South Carolina

PROFESSIONAL
EXPERIENCE
1990 – Present Instructor of Computer Science
South Carolina State University
Orangeburg, South Carolina

1987 - 1990 Assistant Professor of Computer Information Science
Morris College
Sumter, South Carolina

1986 - 1987 Instructor of Computer Science
Benedict College
Columbia, South Carolina

1982 - 1986 Instructor of Computer Science
Atlanta Junior College
Atlanta, Georgia

PUBLICATIONS
King, V. J., Davis, C., 2007. A Case Study of Urban Heat Islands in the Carolinas. Journal of Environmental Hazards, volume 7 (4), 353-359.

PROFESSIONAL
ASSOCIATIONS
Recording Secretary, Kappa Mu Epsilon Mathematics Honor Society

Member, Association of Computing Machinery (ACM)

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Abstract

RAPTOR – A Vehicle to Enhance Logical ThinkingWe believe that logical thinking is very important for writing efficient programs butunfortunately our students lack the logical thinking skills. One to way to address this is throughthe use of visual programming tools and one such tool is Raptor. The RAPTOR developmentenvironment minimizes the amount of syntax the student must learn to write correct programinstructions. The RAPTOR development environment is visual.RAPTOR programs are diagrams (directed graphs) that can be executed one symbol at a time.This will help students to follow the flow of instruction execution in RAPTOR programs.RAPTOR is designed for ease of use. RAPTOR error messages are designed to be more readilyunderstandable by beginning programmers. The goal is to teach students you how to design andexecute algorithms and develop the logical thinking skills required in programming languagesuch as C, C++ or Java.These features of RAPTOR has helped us in providing an Interdisciplinary Integrated Teachingand Learning experiences that integrates team-oriented, hands-on learning experiencesthroughout the engineering technology and sciences curriculum and engages students in thedesign and analysis process beginning with their first year. The objective of this paper is todiscuss our experiences with the use of RAPTOR in various science and technology courses.

Swain, N., & Moses, W., & Anderson, J. A., & Davis, C. T. (2013, June), RAPTOR - A Vehicle to Enhance Logical Thinking Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--22403

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