Month: February 2015

LED-Lit Robotic Garden Nurtures Kids To Code — Campus Technology

By Dian Schaffhauser 02/23/15

The creators of a robotic garden from MIT are hoping it becomes a tool to encourage students — especially girls — to understand more about algorithms and programming. A team from both the institute’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab CSAIL and the Department of Mechanical Engineering has developed a tile system that can be used to manage the garden via a tablet or a device with Bluetooth. Users can make a given flower or bunches of flowers bloom or change their colors by communicating with LED lights and dozens of tiny robots. More advanced users can also add their own commands and execute sequences in real time.

via LED-Lit Robotic Garden Nurtures Kids To Code — Campus Technology.

Dream It, Code It, Win It

“Dream it. Code it. Win it.” is a coding competition that is based judged on the quality of the problem being tackled as well as the solution.

Follow these simple steps to enter the $50,000 competition:

  1. Design a code or computer program that solves a problem
  2. Make a video and upload it to YouTube
  3. Submit the form

“Dream it. Code it. Win it.” has been organized by Cristina Dolan, the MIT Club of New York, MIT Enterprise Forum of New York City, and TradingScreen to celebrate and reward the creative aspects of Computer Science education. Last year, college and high school students were awarded $70,000 in cash and prizes for their creations which ranged from computer software, phone apps, to robotics.

via Dream It, Code It, Win it

 

Google hopes to boost AP computer science pass rates – eCampus News | eCampus News

RISE Up 4 CS will aid African-American high school students in college-level computer science courses and examsAs research reveals that minority students enroll in and pass high school and college STEM courses less often than their peers, efforts are emerging to encourage those student groups to pursue STEM studies.

via Google hopes to boost AP computer science pass rates – eCampus News | eCampus News.

7 iOS apps for developers on the go | ITworld

By Rich Hein, CIO | February 3, 2015

iOS Apps for Developers

Developers don’t always get to choose where and when things happen. Sometimes you’re on the move when things need to be handled and that means using your tablet or smartphone to address issues. We’ve compiled this handy list of iOS apps that programmers and developers can add to their mobile “toolbox.”

via 7 iOS apps for developers on the go | ITworld.

BBC News – Coder creates smallest chess game for computers

A French coder has developed what is thought to be the smallest-sized chess computer program.

BootChess is only 487 bytes in size, and the code can be run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux computers.

That makes it smaller than 1K ZX Chess – a Sinclair ZX81 computer game, which contained 672 bytes of code and had held the record for 33 years.

via BBC News – Coder creates smallest chess game for computers.