Robots And Microprocessors: Increasing Student Interest In Introductory Programming
Gregory M. Dick · 2020
BackgroundInstruction in computer programming has been a required component of the Engineering Technology curriculum at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (UPJ) since its inception in the early 1970s.In the 1970's the programming language was FORTRAN and the primary goals of the course were to give the students a firm grounding in the basics of: problem solving algorithm development program design, coding, testing and documentation.The problem-solving facet of the course focused on data analysis and numerical methods.This introductory course has evolved along with the evolving computing environment.As the C language gained in popularity, the language of instruction was changed from FORTRAN to C; the problem solving focus of the course, however, remained.Since the origin of the course nearly thirty years ago, the emergence of a plethora of application programs, e.g., P-Spice, MATLAB / SimuLink, Excel, ETAP, SKM Analysis Power Tools and others, has reduced the need for Electrical Engineering Technology Students to design and implement such application specific computer codes.Their need is to use these tools to solve engineering problems.The process of building those tools is in better suited to the discipline of Computer Science.A primary goal of this course now is to prepare students for subsequent courses in embedded system development.These courses focus on the hardware, software, and application of microprocessor and microcontroller based systems.C has become the language of embedded processors and C is gradually replacing assembly language in many applications i,ii .In fact, 80% of new embedded systems are developed using the C language iii .Integrated development environments, e.g.Embedded Workbench from IAR Systems, include powerful C development tools and simplify the management of multiple software modules.The user is presented with a familiar project environment that resembles Microsoft Visual Studio.