june 30th

Reza continued work on his fleet of forklift bots, while completing the peripherals that accompany the activities.

Chris worked on the predator/prey bot that will use the IR ball detection and ultrasonic to find the prey.

The trash collector continued progress with Erika and Fera.

Brad worked on the board game/balance bot.

Spring 2 (June 29-July 17)

Sprint Goals:

1. Revise any last issues with Forklift Challenge for the San Diego Workshop (Project Goal 1)
   
2. Assemble and label (with Braille) the forklifts to be used for the San Diego workshop. (Project Goal 1)
   
3. Have a detailed understanding of the following sensors: Gyroscope, PS2 controller, Accelerometer. Understanding is based on experimentation with quantitative and qualitative data gathering using various lighting, materials, etc. as relevant to the sensors being studied. (Project Goal 2)
   
4. From brainstormed list, complete 3-4 challenges, including code, materials, robot model and the proofreading and testing there of. (Project Goal 1)

Note on Tasks and Assignments:
Each Sprint Goal has a set of associated tasks, sprint items, that are assigned to one or more people for the current sprint. Other tasks may need to be added or people re-assigned as issues arise and collaboration is encouraged. The name listed with the task is the person who is the lead for completing that task.


Assignments (Sprint Items):

• SG1: Revise any last issues with Forklift Challenge for the San Diego Workshop - Reza

• SG2: Assemble and label (with Braille) the forklifts to be used for the San Diego workshop. - All will build; Erika, Krista will label the robots with the provided Braille labeler

• SG3: Sensor Analysis: Gyroscopic (Brad, Krista), Accelerometer (Erika, Fara), PS2 controller (Chris, Reza)
  

For each of the following sensors: gyroscopic, accelerometer, PS2 contoller,

1. Inventory the sensors and note any that do not function properly (be specific in how they do not work and attach the note to the sensor in its box)
   
2. Devise appropriate tests for each sensor using a variety of materials/distances/etc as relevant to the sensor; log what the tests are and how carried out in order to replicate them later - the tests will require some proof-of-concept programing and building an appropriate lego model to hold the sensor.
   
3. Maintain a data set of your quantitative and qualitative results in Excel/Word
   
4. Summarize your findings and provide a set of best practices and caveats for the use of each sensor in activities (to be used in this project and to disseminated to others)
   

• SG4: From brainstormed list, complete 3-4 challenges, including code, materials, robot model and the proofreading and testing there of.

Challenges

• Trash Collector then Color Sorter extension: Erika, Faradjine
• Predator/Prey then Sumo: Reza, Chris
• Racing then Board Game: Brad, Krista

Pairs will work on specified challenge, where each challenge consists of:

1. Robot model is developed and finalized and is determined to be constructable from 1 'kit'.
   
2. Robot model is documented in Lego Designer and the instructions have been tested
   
3. Challenge write-up has been written and proofread.
   
4. Challenge write-up has been inspected by a peer, and has been revised as needed.
   
5. Challenge write-up has been checked in under a folder named for that challenge (where all challenge materials will be stored)
   
6. Challenge solution code has been completed, tested, commented, and checked. It's file name contains the work solution in it.
   
7. The Challenge has been broken down into a set of tutorial write-ups (will be handouts) that break down the challenge's main concepts into small chunks where the students work with small programs and concepts in order to be ready to solve the overall challenge.
   
8. The Challenge tutorial code is completed, tested, and commented. Name the files according to the challenge, the concept being taught and the number that indicates the order that the tutorial should be done in e.g. Maze_Repeat_2.nxc
   
9. Any helper libraries are completed, tested, and commented. They are also clearly labels that they are a helper library and checked in with the challenge.
   

Friday, June 26

Today, there wasn't a great variety of work done besides a lot of forklift building. After an initial hickup with the Lego Designer(what else is new?), Krista, Fara, Chris and Reza were able to complete a forklift each in about three hours. I noticed there were a few small problems with the design, but all of those have been fixed. There still remains three pieces that are not properly placed in the design model for the program will not allow the pieces to fit properly.
After lunch, we got back to the forklifts, and we finished the last two models in about another three hours. After this, we tested each model by running the forklift code on the short course. Some of the color sensors vary very slightly on the color of certain objects, so there will need to be a color range for each colored square. Also, some light sensors appear more sensitive than others, so the intensity values might have to be tweaked a little so all work properly. We will make these final changes on Monday, and also try to be prepared to have our proposals completed by Monday afternoon.

June 24!!!!

Today, everybody pretty much work on their robot, researching and taking notes on their ideas and discoveries.
Yesterday, Reza was unsecured about the possibility of coming up with a Predator and preys activity that would work with out any flaws. His main issue was how to make the preys recognize each other from the Predator with only one ultrasonic place in the front or back. however, today during the group sharing session(every one talked about the ideas they have so far), we gave our inputs and ideas on how he should go with it. One of them was to place the ultrasonic on a moving support that could rotate it in circle. Reza is currently working on that prospective.

Brad has great ideas on the Line follower/ Racing Robots, he came up with an activity for each day. He also implemented the race with different ideas that will make it more fun and challenging. He will continued to work on the proposal and probably focus on the programming and building.

Erika has the idea of combining the can collector with the trash collector/ dump and collect. She is making progress on her research and writing her proposal. She has no current difficulties. She found simple codes in the NXT book that will definitely be useful.

Krista came up with a few board game and therefore is still indecisive on her final choice. One of the game is a race to your current home. It uses a color dealer that tells you on which color you should head on. the main other is to make a race and have a winner. It is a little like monopoly but with colors and no purchasing. She made some sample of all the ideas she has and continued to make research.

Fara is following the same idea of the color sorter found on Google but she implemented by making each containers a color. She also makes the robot moves instead of staying steady. The main idea is for the robot to move toward each containers and find the match with the colored brick. Once it is matched, the robot will placed the brick to its box.

New Challenge Proposals

Challenges

Multi-Bot

1. Predator Prey (Tag) (Reza, Krista)

2. Racing - Olympic events (Brad)

Puzzle / Games

3. Sort bricks by color (implemented) (Fara. Reza)

4. Vending (OPEN, Reza-1)

5. Board Game (TBD) (Krista, Brad)

Sensor / Movement

6. Segway (gyro) (OPEN)

7. Dancing Bot - Bot reacts to sound (OPEN, Brad-1)

8. Trash collector - dump and collect / Table bot (rover) (Erika, Fara)

Designs

9. Insect/Animal bots - apperance

10. Wall-e model

All Brainstorming Items to Date

predator prey

* color following

* avoidance

* detection

battle tanks
connect 4
line following
sorter

* change

* color blocks

rubrik's cube solver
light follower
table bot

SlugBot(find and retrieve slugs for fuel)
mobot
roomba
the turk(chess playing)
ballroom dancing bot
vending machine bot
r2d2
robot that reacts to sound depending on frequency played
nurse bot
rover bots

# Predator Prey(color following, avoidance, detection)
# Battle Tanks
# Connect 4 Player
# Line Following 4 ways
# Sorter(change Colored Blocks)

Obstacle course
Color sensor
Light
US
Whisker bots
cars (sensors to avoid each other)
printer bots
firefighter bot
racing bots
UNO bot(cards)
Insect/Animal bots
beetle
cat
t-rex
spider
Trash collector
SumoBot x3
hand robot
Wall-e

Balancing Bot
- With gyroscope sensor + platform for a cup of water, it would keep the platform level while going up ramps to keep the water from spilling

Racing with bots that do not have wheels (biped, quadruped etc)

Stair climber

Drag Race - No wheels allowed
Stair climber

June 22, 2009- It's sunny!

The majority of today was used to complete the last of the tasks from Sprint 1.

Reza:
The Forklift Challenge is ready for review; the documents have been peer reviewed, the tutorials are finished and the model is in the designer (although there is a bug with the designing software, like the catapult).

Fara + Brad:
All sensors are inventoried and tested; a write up for each type of sensor has been completed and peer reviewed. These sensors include: Light, Ultrasonic, Color, Infrared and Compass.

Chris and Krista:
The Catapult Challenge has already gone through a formal review and is totally complete.

A little bit of everyone:
The initial activity, Project Zero, has been peer reviewed. The tutorials have been tested and revised as needed and the bots that are to be used for this exercise are complete in the designer. The only thing left to do with this activity is to finish the "Challenge" activity at the end of the document; Brad started working with the color sensor today, he downloaded sound files that will eventually read colors for the students and started on the code. Once the code is smoothed out, the activity will be written up and ready for formal review.

Grabber:
We tested out the grabber robot for a bit today, both in the carpeted lab and in the smooth floors of the Innovation Center. We've come to the conclusion that there is a small flaw in the design of the grabber: the US sensor tends to pick up a reading when there is nothing in front of it. We believe that this is because the US sensor is so low to the ground, moving the sensor to the side of the bot and raising it a few centimeters off the ground level will hopefully fix this problem. If the change in model is made however, the code and tutorials will have to be revised; tomorrow morning we should discuss how much time must be devoted to making the grabber function smoothly and if we have enough time to do it.

June 19

Today, Fara read over Reza's Forklift writeup and made a few changes to that. Krista continued to work on activity 0 and finished up a lot of that, while Reza proofread and made finalizations to the forklift write-up. Chris was sick and was unable to make it in today. We will discuss future project ideas this coming week and hopefully finish up the grabber robot by next monday.

Thursday, June 19: An Overview

On this gloomy, rainy Thursday, Reza finished up the activity and tutorials for the Forklift challenge making the whole exercise complete. Tomorrow morning he's planning on reading through again and fine tuning a few things before the activity goes up for peer review.

Chris and Krista have worked their ideas together for the Activity Zero document; Chris worked on developing the short tutorial exercises and the code needed for them while Krista built the bot in the Lego designer (one file for each of the sensors that can be atatched). The model of the TriBot was also built in the designer at this time (TriBot is modeled with the touch sensor in frnt while TriBot_V2 has the touch sensor in back with a light sensor in the front).

Brad and Fara finished up the experimenting and write-up for the compas sensor. Working with the sensor in the marble-floored Inovation Center actually worked out much better than here in the lab with icky carpets. The documents for this sensor will be peer reviewed tomorrow morning.

Up for grabs tomorrow:

• Looking over the Grabber challenge and determining what needs to be changed
• Working on/Finishing Activity Zero
• Peer reviewing Sensor documents and the Forklift challenge
  

something i found while browsing the other day

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/zhenwei-you-b-touchphone

june 17

The Overview of everybody's day.

Krista went over the Robot made by Chris yesterday. Since, the design of the robot was not quite working in the Lego designer and due to the fact she could not make any changes to it, she made a new robot. Afterwards, she went ahead and did the design. She worked on the activities for the motors and created a list of definition of different technical terms.

Reza continued with the write-up of his project. He finished the student activities section and the tutorial code. He said he is left only to edit the write up for the teacher activities and minor other activities.

Brad and Faradjine continued working on the programming for the Line Following Test with a Compass Sensor. While we were successful with the north direction, we decided to generalize the code for any other other target meaning south, west, east. After different testing and still not quite a right answer, Faradjine went ahead and did the design for the model while Brad continued on the code. Afterwards, Faradjine started a draft of the Formal write-up for the sensor.

Chris is sick and therefore could not come to work today.

Challenge Brainstorm

Balancing Bot
- With gyroscope sensor + platform for a cup of water, it would keep the platform level while going up ramps to keep the water from spilling

Racing with bots that do not have wheels (biped, quadruped etc)

Stair climber

June 15

Here is the breakdown of work while I was there:

Krista and Chris both began reviewing the write-ups that have been completed for the sensors.

Reza worked on the write-up for the forklift activity he's been working on.

Faradjine and I worked on testing the compass sensor for the first part, creating a testing mechanism and working based on a priori knowledge of the layout of the building.

All group members, excluding Chris and Krista, should have gone over the Catapult materials for the formal review tomorrow.

From what I gathered and what is planned, tomorrow will focus on:

The group working on reviewing the Catapult activity.

Krista and Chris working on polishing or fixing anything needed for the Catapult activity, following the review, as well as finishing reviewing any of the sensor write ups that have not been gone over.

Reza finishing up his work on the forklift activity.

Faradjine and I working on finishing testing with the compass sensor, followed by distributing the work for the write up and model designs needed for doing the tests.

Challenge Brainstorm

Changed to:

Drag Race - No wheels allowed
Stair climber

Friday, june 12

After the discussion with Tom. I worked on the Ultrasonic write-up, finalizing the document and updated the testing model.
Then I started researching about The Compass Sensor and how we could test it.

June 12 (by Reza)

Today was a relatively light day. Krista finished up with the kits, and all that remains is an official checkout system for the kits. The kits with missing pieces have been labeled, so there should be no problems in determining what kits should be used.
Chris finished up the last of the catapult stuff, so we are just about ready to read through the write up and tutorial to ensure that it is ready for the workshop.
Brad proofread over what Faradjine wrote yesterday in the write up for one of the sensors and tested several more of the additional sensors given to us by Dr. Ludi, while Faradjine completely finished up the write up for the ultrasonic sensor. All that remains for them is the work for compass sensor now.
I continuted working on the write-up for the forklift while also making slight modifications to the code. I just need to break everything up into activities for the workshop, and decide which of the functions the students should be given or which they should write. I should be finished with this in the next couple of days.

Review materials

Final document
Catapault\Catapault design Challenge-Final.doc

Code for students
Catapault\ForStudents

Other code samples are in the
Catapult\

Catapult Review Session - Tuesday, 6/16

At Friday's Scrum we agreed on holding the review session for the Catapult Challenge on Tuesday morning (6/16) from 10:00-12:00 in the SE conference room. Chris will identify the respository artifacts to review. Please review these artifacts in preparation for Tuesday's meeting.

June 11 (FARA)

Today, while Brad was working on testing the remaining IR sensors, I was testing the Ultrasound Sensor. I previously had some data for a sensor but I had to start all over because I discover that the table surface I was using to test the objects, was giving weird and non-accurate data. Brad and I brainstorm it a little, trying to figure out how we could test it and which area to use. Finally, we decided to use the Hallway. Brad started testing some objects and I finished the rest. I took us 4hrs to finish.
After, I started the write-up for the Ultrasonic.
Tomorrow, I will finish with the writing and I will start working with Brad on the Compass Sensor.

Today's Overview (by Krista)

Fifteen totally complete kits (absolutely no missing pieces) are completed and labeled with bright tabs of paper. Reza is currently working with Kit#7 while Chris is working with Kit#11. I will start putting together the final 2 kits tomorrow, however there are going to be many missing pieces in at least one while the Grabber is still together.

Chris has completed the Catapult project; student tutorials and code for the teachers are sorted and complete, the write up has been proofread twice and the new design is up to date in the modeler (along with edited pictures to show where the modeler refused pieces). Tomorrow we will work together to design a method for testing the challenges.

Fara and Brad have finished everything to do with the light, color, IR sensors. The data collection for the US is completed and the write-up is in the midst of completion. Tomorrow they will work on the compass sensors.

Reza has completed most of what is needed for the forklift. The challenge is about halfway to being finished; most of tomorrow will be designated to finishing the challenges and working on the tutorials.

challenge brainstorm ideas

SlugBot(find and retrieve slugs for fuel)
mobot
roomba
the turk(chess playing)
ballroom dancing bot
vending machine bot
r2d2
robot that reacts to sound depending on frequency played
nurse bot
rover bots

Brad Work Log

Today I worked on inventorying sensors, proofreading the Light Sensor and Color Sensor writeups, and working on the IR Sensor Writeup.

For approximately 0.5 hours, I worked on taking inventory of the sensors, counting the sensors and noting which ones had defects, which ones had not been tested yet, and inventorying the materials used with the sensors specifically or similar devices (the PS2 controllers, the IR Balls, etc).

For around 0.5 to 1.0 hours, I worked on proofreading the Light Sensor and Color Sensor writeups, expanding them with some ideas, and making any changes necessary in the measurements spreadsheets, such as any charts or other required tables or images that were needed.

For approximately 2.5 hours, I worked on the IR Sensor writeup. This included bouncing ideas around with Faradjine and creating tables and images for the qualitative and quantitative values to be displayed in the report. The writeup needs to be extended with some ideas for sensor use and Faradjine plans on proofreading it, making it almost ready for further review.

For around 1.0 hours otherwise, I talked and collaborated with Faradjine on the other writeups, the model for the other test harness we used for the sensors, and we talked a little on the splitting up of the work. We agreed on the next steps for the ultrasonic sensor and planned on testing at least two to three more of the ultrasonic sensors to verify the results we received with the first, followed by doing an inventory sweep to make sure they were all functioning.

As such, tomorrow I plan to work with Faradjine on gathering the required test data needed for flushing out the information we have on the ultrasonic sensor. We will then start working on the test cases for the compass sensor, while working aside to clarify issues found with some of the code examples and functions found for working with some of the previous sensors. Following, we will probably divide up the work between the ultrasonic sensor writeup, the defect testing for the ultrasonic and infrared sensors that have not been tested, and the clarifying and correcting of code examples in the previous writeups.

Faradjine- June 10

After the scrum, I started on testing the additional sensor color, labeling them and putting aside the defected ones.

After the testing, I created a model for the Infrared Sensor using the design Software.

I proofread Brad formal write up for the IR Sensor, made changes in the format especially with illustration and a few ideas that I thought work better that way. I added pictures to some sections.

Tomorrow I will mostly be working on the Ultrasonic write-up and test the rest of the IR sensors, make sure they work perfectly.

Challenge Brainstorm June 10

1. Predator Prey(color following, avoidance, detection)
2. Battle Tanks
3. Connect 4 Player
4. Line Following 4 ways
5. Sorter(change Colored Blocks)
   

Chris-June 10

Today was mostly going through the code for the catapult and then making small changes here and there. I also finished allotting which of the code samples the students will get and seperating them into a different folder.

Then i went on to try to come up with more ideas for the challenge brainstorm.

Tomorrow i will be looking for more ideas for the brainstorm and building the catapult bot one last time to take pictures of the final two steps that are needed to finish the bot after the instructions

Krista's Day! (June 10)

I started out the morning by finishing up sorting through Karl's kit, which incidentally was a great idea because there were a ton of extra pieces in it. I then dismantled my catapult along with a buggy that was hiding in a corner. I sorted through my kit and then added it to the completed pile. There are now 12 totally complete pairs (one is missing a brick, which I think is currently on the Grabber).

There are 5 boxes left of mixed pieces (three blue, two white) which have been cleaned up for easy access of parts; the extra cords, motors and sensors are sorted into clear bins.

Chris and I are basically done with the entire Catapult project so tomorrow I'll float around and help whoever needs it, or develop some brainstorm ideas for sprint 2.

Reza's Workday 6/9/09

Today, I originally planned to do work with the Lego Designer program, but before I decided to continue in the modification of the forklift. I had been planning to add a color sensor to it to add for more complex activities. It took me about an hour to find out how to write the color sensor into the code. After talking to Faradjine and Brad, they told me that it reads similar to an ultrasonic sensor, so I implemented it as one, and it worked as online sources suggested.
Next, I had to add the sensor to the robot, but I didn't have a lot of space to work with. I was told by Faradjine that the color sensor does not work too well when it is placed too far from an object, so I tried to replace the light sensor with the color sensor. This required me to change the code I was using to follow a black line, but this was a simple fix. I then ran a few tests, but it appeared that the color sensor does not read quickly enough to pick up the thin black line as the bot is turning too quickly. It only worked after signficantly slowing down the bot, but this also proved to be troublesome when making sharp turns. After working on this for about two hours, I decided to scratch the idea and go back to the light sensor. I would have to make modifications to the bot to add the color sensor without getting in the way and becoming unstable. I spent 2 hours trying to change the design to find little success.
Tomorrow, I think I will add an extenstion piece coming off of the side to place the sensor on, or I will try exchanging positions with the light sensor and attempt to get the ligh sensor to work from the new position.

Faradjine- June 9

I proofread the light sensor formal write up started by Brad and yesterday and added a few sections to the documents. I think it is officially done just need to be read and given and posted.

I started the Color Sensor formal write up. It is almost done just 2 sections missing and Brad needs to proofread and added up his own ideas if he wants too.

Tomorrow I will test the color sensors I received today and work on the formal write up for the Ultrasonic sensor.

Krista's Day! (June 9)

This morning, I consolidated the last of the "mixed" kits to allow more empty bins while also picking up a few empty (and not so empty) bins from Step's office. Because the catapult, forklift and a few buggies were disassembled yesterday, parts that were missing in the completed kits became available. I fixed as many holes in the completed kits as was possible (which ended up being almost every one of them) while also completing 4 new boxes from scratch to make an even pairing between blue and white bins; there are now 10 pairs.

Once all of this was finished and cleaned up, which was not until after lunch, I started going through Karl's kit to make sure it was complete. This ended up being more tedious than building kits from scratch. I have finished his blue bin and plan to do the white one tomorrow morning.

Workday-june 9

Finished up the building of the catapult bot in the morning and all design changes that were needed. The bot is able to be built using the one kit.

I then moved onto looking into the code for the catapult and moved the files that will be given to the students into a separate folder from the answers that the teachers will be receiving. I have also been looking over the lesson plans and making sure all of the mentions of the files exist and make sense.

Going at current speed, we could probably have most of the catapult ready to look at soon.

Challenge brainstorm - tues

Obstacle course
Color sensor
Light
US
Whisker bots
cars (sensors to avoid each other)
printer bots
firefighter bot
racing bots
UNO bot(cards)
Insect/Animal bots
beetle
cat
t-rex
spider
Trash collector
SumoBot x3
hand robot
Wall-e

Reza's Work Day 6/8/09

Today, I spent the first two or three hours building a forklift with Faradjine following the directions given in the Lego Model Designer. Other than a few missing pieces in the model, this went very well. I then downloaded my forklift programs to the brick and executed them on my forklift to make sure all was functioning correctly. Everything worked as it did on Franklin's forklift, so this is completely done.

Next, I had to add the few pieces that were missing in the design model so there will be no confusion when somebody else tries to build the forklift. This was very frustrating as some pieces were not connecting properly. I struggled with this for at least two hours, but decided to give up on it for the day to pick up it back up tomorrow.

Finally, I disassembled Franklin's forklift model and sorted his pieces into the bins so we can complete the remaining kits. This took about an hour and I am completely done with that.

End of Day Work Report

Today I worked on doing formalized write-ups for the sensors, with my focus on doing the Light Sensor.

To do this task, I first devised a document template for Sensor write-ups, which took around .75 hours to complete based on the different data required. I found this necessary and useful, as it would help to formalize the structure of such write-ups for the future. It can be updated as necessary to fit with the requirements of writing up about the caveats, qualitative and quantitative data acquired during tests, and other nuances including best practices and ideas for using the sensor. Aside, I also created the basic directory structure for the sensor write-ups, committing these and the current versions of documents to the repository.

Afterward, I began working on the Light Sensor write-up document. I worked on this for the remainder of the day (not counting the morning meeting, the other 4.25 hours of my work day). I worked specifically on writing up the testing results and placing the data, exported from a Google doc, into an Excel spreadsheet. I also worked on finding and referencing the resources we used for determining support for the sensor and finding the different expected ranges and values available.

Lastly, during my period of working on the document, I worked with Faradjine on the model for the testing harness we used for testing the sensors using LEGO Digital Designer.

We will probably follow a similar process for the rest of the sensor information.

As for my plans tomorrow, I plan on finishing the Light Sensor write-up and working with Faradjine to look over and proofread it before submitting it for review. Providing I finish this before the end of work (more than likely), we will split up who will work on the next document, while the other will more than likely work on inventory and tracking the defected vs. correctly working sensors, placing these into a separate inventory spreadsheet.

Brainstorming List Items

No new items today (while I was there).

Spring 1 (June 8 - June 26, 2009)

Sprint Goals:

1. Finish Karl's Catapult Challenge to include all materials, code, design, write-up, etc. (Project Goal 1)
   
2. Extend and finish Franklin's Forklift Challenge to include all materials noted above (Project Goal 1)
   
3. Assemble and label all kits, and include a list of any parts that are missing in each (Project Goal 1)
   
4. Have a detailed understanding of the following sensors: Color, Light, Ultrasonic, Compass, IR. Understanding is based on experimentation with quantitative and qualitative data gathering using various lighting, materials, etc. as relevant to the sensors being studied. (Project Goal 2)
   
5. Brainstorm a list of challenges that are good for a weekend in duration and that would be fun. (Project Goal 1)
6. Finish Andy's Can Collector Challenge. (Project Goal 1)
   

Note on Tasks and Assignments:
Each Sprint Goal has a set of associated tasks, sprint items, that are assigned to one or more people for the current sprint. Other tasks may need to be added or people re-assigned as issues arise and collaboration is encouraged. The name listed with the task is the person who is the lead for completing that task.

Daily Scrum:
Each day at 9am, we will have a scrum that will last no more than 10 minutes, where each person briefly notes what they learned, what they are going to work on on the current day, and if there are any impediments that are holding up progress. Tom and/or Steph will be checking in with you during the day as well and you can always come see us too, if needed.

End of Each Work Day:
The assigned person needs to post the current (new) entries in the brainstorming list onto the blog. Name the post and tag it as Brainstorming List Items. Each person needs to post to the blog what tasks they worked on (as some of you may have helped someone else or may have taken on another, unlisted task that was needed), how long you spent working on it, and if you are done with the task or not.

Assignments (Sprint Items):

• SG1: Finish Karl's Catapult (Chris, Krista): To Be Ready for peer inspection by end of week 2 of the sprint

1. Robot model is finalized and is determined to be constructable from 1 'kit' - Chris
   
2. Robot model is documented in Lego Designer and the instructions have been tested - Krista but walk Chris through it
   
3. Challenge write-up has been written and proofread. - Krista
   
4. Challenge write-up has been inspected by a peer, and has been revised as needed. - Chris
   
5. Challenge write-up has been checked in under a folder named for that challenge (where all challenge materials will be stored) - Chris
   
6. Challenge solution code has been completed, tested, commented, and checked. It's file name contains the work solution in it. - Chris
   
7. The Challenge has been broken down into a set of tutorial write-ups (will be handouts) that break down the challenge's main concepts into small chunks where the students work with small programs and concepts in order to be ready to solve the overall challenge. - Krista finish
   
8. The Challenge tutorial code is completed, tested, and commented. Name the files according to the challenge, the concept being taught and the number that indicates the order that the tutorial should be done in e.g. Maze_Repeat_2.nxc - Krista
   
9. Any helper libraries are completed, tested, and commented. They are also clearly labels that they are a helper library and checked in with the challenge. - Chris
   

• SG2: Extend and Finish Franklin's Forklift (Reza): To Be Ready for peer inspection by end of week 2 of the sprint
  

1. Robot model is finalized and is determined to be constructable from 1 'kit' - Reza but work wth Faradjine if possible
   
2. Robot model is documented in Lego Designer and the instructions have been tested - Reza finalize and test with Faradjine
   
3. Challenge write-up has been written and proofread. - Reza
   
4. Challenge write-up has been inspected by a peer, and has been revised as needed. -- peer is Faradjine
   
5. Challenge write-up has been checked in under a folder named for that challenge (where all challenge materials will be stored) - Reza
   
6. Challenge solution code has been completed, tested, commented, and checked. It's file name contains the work solution in it. - Reza
   
7. The Challenge has been broken down into a set of tutorial write-ups (will be handouts) that break down the challenge's main concepts into small chunks where the students work with small programs and concepts in order to be ready to solve the overall challenge. - Reza but work with Faradjine or Brad (whoever is available at the time)
   
8. The Challenge tutorial code is completed, tested, and commented. Name the files according to the challenge, the concept being taught and the number that indicates the order that the tutorial should be done in e.g. Maze_Repeat_2.nxc - Reza
   
9. Any helper libraries are completed, tested, and commented. They are also clearly labels that they are a helper library and checked in with the challenge. - Reza but work with Faradjine or Brad (whoever is available at the time)
   

• SG3: Sensor Analysis (Brad, Faradjine): Week 1: Color, Lght, IR; Week 2 Ultrasonic, Week 3 Compass - Estimated
  

For each of the following sensors: color, light, ultrasonic, IR (with ball), compass,

1. Inventory the sensors and note any that do not function properly (be specific in how they do not work and attach the note to the sensor in its box) - Faradjine
   
2. Devise appropriate tests for each sensor using a variety of materials/distances/etc as relevant to the sensor; log what the tests are and how carried out in order to replicate them later - the tests will require some proof-of-concept programing and building an appropriate lego model to hold the sensor. - Brad
   
3. Maintain a data set of your quantitative and qualitative results in Excel/Word - Faradjine
   
4. Summarize your findings and provide a set of best practices and caveats for the use of each sensor in activities (to be used in this project and to disseminated to others) - Brad and Faradjine must split this up, suggest alternate
   

• SG4: Finish assembling and inventorying the kits (Krista, Chris): To Be Ready by end of week 1 of sprint
  

1. Reassemble and organize all lego kits into their respective containers.
2. Have a list of missing parts and tape it to its respective kit.
3. Create a check out list so that we know who is working with which complete kit on a project (use of blog and whiteboard).
   

• SG5: Brainstorming (All and it will be ongoing through the Sprint): To Be Ready by end of Sprint

• SG6: Finish Andy's Can Collector Challenge (TBD)
  

1. During the sprint, each team member is responsible to contributing ideas to a running list (on the whiteboard) for potential challenges to be considered for the next sprint. At the end of each day, the designated person will enter any items noted on that day onto the blog. Brad (Mon), Chris (Tues), Faradjine (Wed), Krista (Thurs), Reza (Fri).
   

Project ACE Summer 2009 Kick-off

Project ACE (Accessible Computing Education) has kicked off its summer work. Scrum will be used to manage the project this summer, where there will be 3 3-week long sprints - where the first spring starts in Week 2 of the project. Students tasks are noted here and daily student progress is to be documented on the blog.

Overall summer goals are:

1. To have 5-6 full sets of challenges, some of which are new and some are to complete ones started in the Spring.
2. To have a deeper understanding of the Lego Mindstorms sensors and other relevant technology
3. To expand/redesign the project website so that it is accessible, easily maintainable and modifiable, usable (and supports various media) and is secure.