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Microsoft funds robotics in education initiative
Jul. 13, 2006

In an effort to boost enrollment and retention in college computer science classes, Microsoft has partnered with the College of Computing at Georgia Tech and Bryn Mawr College to create the Institute for Personal Robots in Education (IPRE).

The institute aims to reinvigorate computer science curricula with robotics technology tailored for teaching purposes, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft says it will provide the College of Computing at Georgia Tech with $1 million paid over three years to develop practical new ways to bring robotics technology into the computer science curriculum, as part of the IPRE. Georgia Tech's College of Computing and Bryn Mawr College will each contribute an additional $1 million for the institute.

IPRE intends to use the recently released Microsoft Robotics Studio as a core technology, according to Microsoft. The College of Computing expects to integrate a new version of Pyro, an educational robotics software platform, with Robotics Studio. This approach is expected to significantly reduce the cost of learning to program robots and make robotics more accessible to students, because it works with both simulation platforms and real mobile robots.


IPRE personal robot concept
(Click image to enlarge)
Microsoft says it invited eight U.S. schools with strong track records in educational robotics to participate in a request for proposals for the partnership. A key tenet of the Georgia Tech / Bryn Mawr proposal is that every student should have a "personal robot" along the lines of the artist's conception shown at right. These small, mobile robots will be inexpensive, dependable, and available at the university bookstore shrink-wrapped with a textbook. Additionally, they will connect to the student's desktop computer for developing, debugging, and running programs that control the robot, according to the proposal.

Richard A. DeMillo, dean of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, stated, "The time is right to transform computer science education, and creativity and contextualization are the key drivers. We are committed to expanding the horizons of our students by incorporating cutting-edge and engaging courses — such as robotics — as core components of the curriculum."

Deepak Kumar, chair of the department of Computing at Bryn Mawr, added, "Bryn Mawr's involvement in this partnership introduces the ideas and problems in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to a very different set of students from the traditional engineering types that have worked on those problems over the past 50 years. As a result, I think we will see some very different and amazing solutions to these kinds of problems."



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