The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in collaboration with the University of Colorado at Boulder, proposes a project to introduce computation through e-textiles. Computer science in the United States is an overwhelmingly male discipline. Many of the the crucial factors in this gender imbalance are cultural; that is, the culture that has grown up around computer science has a variety of attributes that appeal more to males than females. In response, this project seeks to design an alternative cultural pathway into the subject -- a pathway that does not purport to change or even implicitly criticize the existing CS culture, but rather seeks to provide a very different culture through which new populations (and especially females) can become fascinated with computing. Specifically, this project will develop and disseminate tools for engaging people in computing through the medium of fabrics and electronic textiles (or e-textiles). The work will build upon ongoing efforts to create accessible, powerful tools and materials that allow users to design and build their own programmable interactive fashion. The types of projects that users undertake within this alternative culture of computer science are rich in content, but refreshingly nontraditional: they are tangible, colorful, dramatic, richly interactive, and beautiful. This project proposes to encourage the growth of this new culture via two complementary avenues of work: the development of a visual programming environment for the LilyPad Arduino (a toolkit developed by the PIs that enables people to build e-textiles) and the development, dissemination, and evaluation of an "E-textiles in-a-Box" kit for educators. This kit will be disseminated through the large network developed by the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) and its effectiveness will be assessed by NCWIT's social science team. These efforts are crucial next steps in engaging a broad audience in e-textiles and -- via this engagement -- a new and diverse audience in computing.
developed and disseminated tools that engaged people in computing and electronics through the medium of electronic textiles (or e-textiles). Intellectual Merit. This work has addressed the lack of diversity in computer science, conducting research about that phenomenon and developing and disseminating tools to address it. We documented that a tool (LilyPad Arduino) that connects both to computer science and to people’s existing interests (in this case textile crafts and/or fashion) can be very effective at engaging new audiences (in this case, women and girls). We then extended the LilyPad Arudino to become more useable and developed a curriculum and book, Sew Electric, to disseminate our materials to broad audiences. For each material we developed, we conducted research to ensure that the products were successful at educating and inspiring middle school students and educators. Broader Impact of Work. A major outcome of this project was the publication of a book, Sew Electric, and a website that contain the curriculum we developed. Each was created with the specific intent of reaching a broad audience and having a broad impact. In particular, our goal is to get a large number of diverse people to engage creatively with computing and engineering. In less than a year, our website has had over 90,000 views and the first printing of the Sew Electric book has sold out. Our project was recently featured in google’s "made by code" initiative. We have also taught numerous workshops to educators and young people, written several academic papers on the research we conducted, and presented our work in a variety of venues, including academic conferences, industry conferences, and open-to-the-public venues like Maker Faires. In more detail, we accomplished the following major goals over the course of the project: We conducted research aimed at understanding the lack of diversity in computer science. We conducted a study on the users of the LilyPad Arduino kit (a construction kit for e-textiles) that found that this community is (organically) overwhelmingly female dominated. This research demonstrates that e-textiles are successful at engaging underrepresented groups in computing, particularly women and girls. We developed and tested new hardware that made e-textiles more useable and financially accessible to educators and novices. The developments were suggested to us during research sessions we held with educators and middle school students and later tested with these same groups, for usability and educational viability. We developed the LilyPad SimpleSnap, a reusable (snap-on) microcontroller for e-textiles. This enables teachers (and others) to use the same piece for multiple classes and/or projects, making e-textiles much more affordable and therefore feasible for classroom use. In collaboration with engineers at SparkFun Electronics, we developed the LilyPad Protosnap board, which consists of a LilyPad microcontroller and a collection of pre-wired sensors and output modules. This board enables users to experiment with programming before they build an entire e-textile project. By eliminating electrical and physical troubleshooting, this board makes it much easier to learn to code and debug programs. (See image) We developed the LilyTiny, a small pre-programmed microcontroller board for e-textiles. This board enables users to experiment with computational ideas and use computation in e-textile projects before they do any programming themselves. In collaboration with Ed Baffi of ModKit, we helped develop and refine new software that enables users to program the LilyPad Arduino family of microcontrollers using a graphical programming environment. Again, this development was suggested to us during research sessions we held with educators and middle school students and later tested with these same groups. (See image) In collaboration with our partners at the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), we developed and tested a curriculum for e-textiles that employs the tools we developed. The curriculum consists of a set of e-textile projects that gradually introduce computing and electronics concepts. In our testing of these tools we found that middle school students could use our materials to create projects they were happy with and that the experience increased their enjoyment of and comfort with programming and electronics. (See images) The collection of activities we developed was published as a book titled Sew Electric. Much of the collection is also available on the website: http://sewelectric.org/. (See image)
