From POPSICLE to CARoL in a Semester

Accessible Hands-on AI and Robotics Education

Volume

Papers from the 2004 AAAI Spring Symposium

Contents

POPSICLE (Patterns in Orientation: Pattern-Aided Simulated Interaction Context Learning Experiment) was introduced as a semester-long research group project of a course in Artificial Intelligence. The project concentrates on investigating aspects of human learning of simple environments. In this paper the project is overviewed, and comment on the pedagogical and management issues used to motivate and support students. The positive experiments from this undergraduate research experienced infused in teaching and AI related course was the inspiration for establishing the Cognitive Agency and Robotics Lab (CARoL) at Towson University, and within a semester prepare the infrastructure to teach a Robotics course on a shoestring.