[ipre-announce] $10K awards available

Tucker Balch tucker.balch at cc.gatech.edu
Tue Mar 25 12:11:46 EDT 2008


Dear Colleagues,

Please share this announcement with those who may be interested in 
testing robots in the classroom.

Thanks!

Tucker Balch & Doug Blank
Institute for Personal Robots in Education
http://www.roboteducation.org

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Robots in the Classroom for Introductory CS


Call for Proposals

The Institute for Personal Robots in Education is pleased to announce an 
opportunity for professors, instructors and teachers of introductory 
Computer Science courses.  This program is centered on an effort to 
deploy and assess the effectiveness of personal robots as a context for 
teaching introductory Computer Science.  IPRE has developed robot 
hardware, currcula, a textbook, and software for classroom use: see 
http://www.roboteducation.org

We expect to provide at least 10 gifts of $10K plus robot hardware (up 
to 20 robots) to proposers in support the establishment of trial 
curricula.  It is expected that the funds would be used to support 
preparation for teaching using robots including: summer salary support, 
TA support, equipment or travel.  Awards up to $20K are possible, 
provided there is sufficient justification.  Funds may be used at the 
PI's discretion and there are no contractual deliverables.  Award 
letters will stipulate that awards are not subject to overhead.

Awardees will also be eligible for additional travel support to attend 
or lead workshops and to present research related to their curricular 
efforts.

Awardees should plan to use IPRE developed assessment instruments (i.e. 
  surveys of student attitudes) in their courses.  IPRE will provide 
assistance and support in the administration of these assessments. 
Awardees should also contribute to the community, for instance by 
publishing research results and by sharing curricular ideas or
other items such as example project assignments on the IPRE website.

We anticipate awardees to begin teaching using these approaches in the 
the 2008-2009 academic year.  The results of assessments and reports on 
progress should be provided as they become available, but at least twice 
during the 2008-2009 academic year.


Proposal Content and Assessment:

Please consult the proposal template available here: 
http://www.roboteducation.org/cfps

We expect most awards to support a plan for testing robots using IPRE's 
existing suite of tools.  However novel projects are also welcome. 
Example topics for novel projects include, but are not limited to:

         o Adding support for additional programming languages such as 
C#, Java, Occam, or C++.

         o Novel assignments for students.

         o Firmware that extends the capabilities of IPRE hardware.

         o Application of IPRE robots or curricula to new audiences such 
as K-12 or upper division undergraduate courses.

The proposal should  include a description of the proposer's experience 
in teaching the relevant subject matter; a description of how the 
proposer expects to use robots in the classroom, and a summary of how 
the provided funds might be expended.  If the proposal is for a grant 
larger than $10K, sufficient justification should be provided.

Proposals will be evaluated partly on the basis of the proposer's record 
of quality or innovation in teaching introductory computer science. This 
may be established by publications, innovative curricular materials, or 
both.

Proposals from the broad community are welcome: We seek balance and 
diversity among public and private institutions, class size, and student 
background.

With the exception of supporting materials, proposals are not expected 
to exceed 3 pages in length.


Period of Award and Participation:

Awardees will be announced in April 2008, with funds provided by June 2008.


Deadline:

Proposals should be sent by email in PDF format to tucker at cc.gatech.edu 
no later than April 15, 2008.  Please use the subject line "IPRE CFP" in 
your message.  The call will remain open after that date, but only those 
proposals arrive by the deadline are guaranteed to be reviewed.

IPRE (the Institute for Personal Robots in Education), founded in July 
2006 and hosted at Georgia Tech with Bryn Mawr College, is a research 
project funded by Microsoft Research, Georgia Tech and Bryn Mawr 
College.  This particular opportunity is provided by IPRE thanks to a 
gift from Microsoft Research.


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