{"290561":{"#nid":"290561","#data":{"type":"news","title":"With New MOOC, Egerstedt Puts Robots in Students\u0027 Hands","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELast year, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/coe.gatech.edu\/content\/inside-magnus-egerstedts-mooc\u0022\u003EProfessor Magnus Egerstedt taught thousands of people\u003C\/a\u003E how to make robots move.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn his online class, \u201cControl of Mobile Robots,\u201d Egerstedt demonstrated the basics of control theory with a collection of robotic sidekicks that shimmied, scurried and skittered at his will. With students from around the world watching videos and taking exams, the course was embraced as a success.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHow to top that? Easy: Do it all over again and put students in charge of robot-building. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u2019s what Egerstedt, the Schlumberger professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, did for the second version of his massive open online course (MOOC), offered in spring through Coursera. Using low-cost, open-source hardware, Egerstedt and a cadre of his graduate students gave MOOC participants the chance to bring their own robots to life.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIn my mind, it\u2019s a game changer,\u201d Egerstedt said. \u201cThis hasn\u2019t been attempted before, and it\u2019s been really exciting.\u201d Egerstedt\u2019s MOOCs are open to anyone with Internet access, not just Georgia Tech students, and that made the new gamble even bigger. Although the first run of his class drew praise, Egerstedt was eager to throw hardware into the mix to help bridge \u201cthe practice-theory gap.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter all, it\u2019s one thing to watch a professor direct robots in a video; it\u2019s quite another to do it yourself on a robot assembled with your own hands.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen some of his graduate students developed a robot for cheap, Egerstedt decided to follow through with the idea.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe partnered with SparkFun Electronics, Texas Instruments and MathWorks to bring low-cost parts to students, who were eventually able to build a machine named the QuickBot for about $140 to $220 each (depending on how advanced their robots were).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe excitement surrounding the QuickBot took Egerstedt by surprise. It wasn\u2019t long before MOOC enrollees were sharing photos of QuickBots they\u2019d tricked out to look like teddy bears and spaceships.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly satisfying to see pictures of their different robots,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPh.D. student Rowland O\u2019Flaherty (one of the QuickBot\u2019s creators) led the MOOC\u2019s lectures on hardware, and he was surprised by students\u2019 outburst of enthusiasm. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s kind of taking on a life of its own,\u201d O\u2019Flaherty said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo encourage discussion, O\u2019Flaherty built a website \u201cfor the conversation to carry on after the course.\u201d Called O\u2019Botics, the site can be edited by anyone and includes the code for the QuickBot. Visitor can add their own robots to the page, as well.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe course\u2019s new material introduced some challenges. O\u2019Flaherty pointed out that building a robot alone is very different from building one as a blueprint for students, many of whom had little or no previous experience with robotics. One small mistake could lead hundreds of students astray.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn Egerstedt\u2019s first MOOC, students flooded the course forums to offer help with math and problem-solving. This time, they also supported each other in robot building, while O\u2019Flaherty and fellow graduate students Jean-Pierre de la Croix and Smriti Chopra checked in regularly to give advice and answer questions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn all, Egerstedt said, well over a thousand MOOC students built robots, and he\u2019s excited to see what they do next.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI think,\u201d he said, \u201cthat this is going to live on beyond the course.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn his online class, \u201cControl of Mobile Robots,\u201d Professor Magnus Egerstedt demonstrated the basics of control theory combined with the implementaion of an open-source robot.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"With New MOOC, ECE\u0027s Professor Magnus Egerstedt Puts Robots in Students\u0027 Hands"}],"uid":"27842","created_gmt":"2014-04-14 16:21:14","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:15","author":"Ashlee Gardner","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-04-14T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-04-14T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"224041":{"id":"224041","type":"image","title":"Magnus Egerstedt","body":null,"created":"1449243551","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:39:11","changed":"1475894896","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:16","alt":"Magnus Egerstedt","file":{"fid":"197376","name":"egerstedtheadshot.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/egerstedtheadshot_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/egerstedtheadshot_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":116278,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/egerstedtheadshot_0.jpg?itok=k7SfLRrp"}},"290811":{"id":"290811","type":"image","title":"QuickBots","body":null,"created":"1449244289","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:51:29","changed":"1475894988","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:48","alt":"QuickBots","file":{"fid":"199224","name":"quickbotsfromaroundtheworld.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/quickbotsfromaroundtheworld_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/quickbotsfromaroundtheworld_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":59380,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/quickbotsfromaroundtheworld_0.jpg?itok=dRMTpJGv"}}},"media_ids":["224041","290811"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iGfxhgtpdvk","title":"Video: Meet the QuickBot"}],"groups":[{"id":"1255","name":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELyndsey Lewis\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer\u003Cbr \/\u003ECollege of Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["lyndsey.lewis@coe.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}