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Work-in-Progress: Bridging the Gap Between MATLAB and Python via ROS to Build Skills in an Introductory Programming Course

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Computers in Education 1 - Programming I

Page Count

11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--40923

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/40923

Download Count

400

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Paper Authors

biography

Joshua Fagan University of Tennessee at Knoxville

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Joshua Fagan received a BS in computer science and mathematics from The University of Richmond and a MS in computer science from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). He is in his final year of a PhD in computer science at UTK, and will be starting a Lecturer position at UTK in Fall 2022. Joshua is interested in developing and teaching solutions involving robotics, machine learning, and data science.

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biography

Amy Biegalski University of Tennessee at Knoxville

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Amy Biegalski is a graduate of The Ohio State University (BS) and Case School of Engineering (MS, PhD). Among other courses, she teaches Computer Solutions of Engineering Problems in the Engineering Fundamentals Program at the University of Tennessee. She is interested in active and project based learning, and technology based introductory engineering classes.

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Abstract

Robots are prevalent in introductory engineering courses to facilitate kinesthetic learning. This paper describes a new open-source robotics toolbox and its implementation in an introductory MATLAB programming course for engineers. The toolbox was designed to allow students to easily and intuitively program small, low-cost, customizable mobile robots using MATLAB. The MATLAB algorithms are converted to Python commands via the MATLAB ROS Toolbox. We describe the motivation for selecting the software and robotics platform, examples of the labs and projects implementing the robots, the framework of the initial version of the toolbox used in the course, challenges encountered, and the resulting toolbox developed after receiving data and feedback from large scale implementation.

Fagan, J., & Biegalski, A. (2022, August), Work-in-Progress: Bridging the Gap Between MATLAB and Python via ROS to Build Skills in an Introductory Programming Course Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40923

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