Hampton University, in collaboration with Carnegie-Mellon University, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, the University of the District of Columbia, Norfolk State University, Winston-Salem State University, Morgan State University, Jackson State University, Elizabeth City State University, Duke University, the University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, and the University of Michigan, proposes the ARTSI Alliance (Advancing Robotics Technology for Societal Impact). ARTSI is a consortium of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and major research universities (R1s) working together to increase African American participation in computer science, with a focus on robotics. This extension proposal will expand ARTSI to seventeen Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and roughly 10 major research universities (R1s). Hampton University is the new lead institution; Carnegie Mellon University remains the lead R1 school. The extension introduces three new initiatives that (1) improve the quality and uniformity of robotics instruction by developing robotics curriculum modules specific to the needs of HBCUs, (2) pilot a program to attract STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) students to HBCUs by offering robot programming activities in local high schools, and (3) pilot skill-building program for rising sophomores to better prepare them to become involved in robotics research. The extension also includes new collaborations with the Caribbean Center for Computing Excellence (a BPC Alliance in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
JSU joined ARTSI in 2009. A new robotics course was developed and has been offered four times during the fall semesters since 2009. Two papers and two abstracts based on our robotics course are published. We participated in all the ARTSI student research conferences and all the ARTSI faculty workshops. Our students achieved excellent performance during the competitions held along with the student research conferences. One student took the ARTSI 2011 summer REU and one student is taking the ARTSI 2012 summer REU. Two students were selected to participate in the 2011 Rising Sophomores Summer Robotics Workshop at JSU. Three students were selected to participate in small robotics research projects during academic year 2011-2012. The robotics course is designed as an elective course for both senior undergraduate students and graduate students of Computer Science. It covers major topics on intelligent mobile robotics, including robot control architectures, sensing, localization, navigation, planning, and uncertainty. The course also reviews programming fundamentals in C++ and introduces two robot programming software packages: the Player/Stage and the Tekkotsu. Students are evaluated on their homework assignments on major robotics topics, robot programming projects, midterm examination, and final examination. The course has been offered four times in the fall semesters over the last four years. The robot programming projects in each semester are updated with adding and/or removing some projects. The four course websites, one for each semester, are available to the public at www.jsums.edu/robotics/. The ARTSI robotics competitions held along with the Annual ARTSI Students Research Conferences provided a unique opportunity to encourage undergraduate students from non-traditional backgrounds in the study of robotics in areas that are relevant to society. We participated in four robotics competitions in the last four years. The competitions provided rich materials for robotics education. Coaching students for preparing for such competitions are challenging, but it also gives coaches an opportunity to learn how to help their students to solving the challenging problems. In fact, three of the four competition tasks have been already transformed to our robot programming lab projects. The PI organized the 2011 Rising Sophomores Summer Robotics Workshop at JSU. The workshop was successful. Participating students were able to finish the given tasks. They studied Linux basics, simple robot programming with two types of robots. They read a number of selected robotics articles, write an abstract, and provide a presentation. The workshop website is available at www.jsums.edu/robotics/Workshop11/. The ARTSI Alliance also provided an opportunity for collaborations among HBCU and R1 faculties. The PI Co-advised an JSU student with Prof. David Touretzky of CMU for developing the Finite State Machine Composer, to draw a finite state machine and convert it into a robot control program in Tekkotsu. Two Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers Xuejun Liang, Developing Robot Programming Lab Projects, in Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS’12), Las Vegas, NV, July 16-19, 2012 Xuejun Liang, Translating Robotics Course Materials from Elite Research I Universities to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, in Proceedings of the 24th Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference (FLAIRS-24), Palm Beach, FL, May 18-20, 2011 Two Peer-Reviewed Abstracts Xuejun Liang, Teaching Robotics Vision Applications Using Tekkotsu, Mid-Southeast Chapter of the ACM 2012 Fall Conference, Gatlinburg, TN, Nov. 15-16, 2012. Xuejun Liang, Developing and Teaching a Robotics Course, Mid-Southeast Chapter of the ACM 2010 Fall Conference, Gatlinburg, TN, Nov. 11-12, 2010.
