Skip to main content

COMP 60, First-Year Seminar: Robotics with LEGO, Fall 2011

Catalog Description — First-Year Seminar: Robotics with LEGO® (3). Required preparation, knowledge of elementary computer programming. The goal of this seminar is to give students a feel for the physical aspects of computing.

TTh 3:30, Sitterson Hall, room 115

Tuesday periods will be our lecture times. Thursday periods will normally be lab times. Please be sure to bring a laptop on Thursdays.

Instructor: Anselmo Lastra
Office: FB113 (this is in the F. P. Brooks Bldg, adjacent to Sitterson Hall)
Office Hours: W 3:00-4:00, Th 2:00-3:00
Email: lastra at cs.unc.edu
Phone: 962-1958

Lab Assistant: Chris Allen
Email:allencg at cs.unc.edu
Phone: 910-364-9273
Office Hours: W 5:00-6:00, F 2:00-3:00 in Sitterson 265

Links

Goals

  1. You will learn the basics of computers, sensors, and actuators.
  2. You will examine the meaning of intelligence and learning as applied to humans, animals, and machines.
  3. You will improve your communication skills through writing and presentations.
  4. You will improve your programming skills.

Honor Code

See http://honor.unc.edu/

The Honor Code is in effect in this class, as in all others at the University.  The Honor System’s “Honor in the Syllabus” page includes the following suggested “affirmation of the Honor Code”:

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has had a student-administered honor system and judicial system for over 100 years. The system is the responsibility of students and is regulated and governed by them, but faculty share the responsibility. If you have questions about your responsibility under the honor code, please bring them to your instructor or consult with the office of the Dean of Students or the Instrument of Student Judicial Governance. This document, adopted by the Chancellor, the Faculty Council, and the Student Congress, contains all policies and procedures pertaining to the student honor system. Your full participation and observance of the honor code is expected.

I encourage you all to help one another in this class. Some have not had much previous programming experience; others have. You will be rewarded for helping your classmates. I will survey the class near the end of the semester, asking each of you to name the members of the class who were most helpful to you. The helpful people will get extra credit.

So, how can you help or be helped without violating the honor code? First, do not copy or allow others to copy programs or assignments; each person’s work should be his/her own. But one person can explain to another how they solved a particular problem. Second, give credit where it is due. If you discover a solution on the web, include the URL.  If someone in the class shows you how to solve a problem, say so in your lab report.

Acknowledgment

Some of the class material was initially developed by Professors Gary Bishop and Henry Fuchs for previous offerings of this seminar.

Thanks to the FYS office for their support.