Title :
Using LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT and LEJOS in an Advanced Software Engineering Course
Author :
Lew, Michael W. ; Horton, Thomas B. ; Sherriff, Mark S.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci., Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
Abstract :
This paper describes the benefits of using LeJOS and the Lego Mindstorms NXT set for teaching advanced software development. While Lego Mindstorms has been used in introduction to computer science courses, it is not reported to be widely used in a simulated production environment requiring such things as threading, network communications, and the implementation of command protocols. Additionally, because the Mindstorms NXT system supports Bluetooth communications with multiple devices, it is possible to use this system as the basis for a complex, communicating system requiring multiple software artifacts on different machines.
Keywords :
computer science education; engineering education; software engineering; LeJOS; Lego Mindstorms NXT; advanced software engineering course; command protocols; computer science courses; multiple software artifacts; network communications; simulated production environment; threading; Bluetooth; Communication system software; Computational modeling; Computer science; Computer simulation; Education; Production; Programming; Protocols; Software engineering;
Conference_Titel :
Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), 2010 23rd IEEE Conference on
Conference_Location :
Pittsburgh, PA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-7052-5
DOI :
10.1109/CSEET.2010.31
