Ari Zare

NetsBlox (https://netsblox.org) is a web-based collaborative learning environment extending Snap! with a few carefully selected abstractions that enable students to create distributed applications. These include online multi-player games and client-server applications that access online STEAM data such as maps, weather, earthquakes, movie information, etc. The distributed computing abstractions supported by NetsBlox also make it possible to write robot control programs. These programs issue… Show more

NetsBlox (https://netsblox.org) is a web-based collaborative learning environment extending Snap! with a few carefully selected abstractions that enable students to create distributed applications. These include online multi-player games and client-server applications that access online STEAM data such as maps, weather, earthquakes, movie information, etc. The distributed computing abstractions supported by NetsBlox also make it possible to write robot control programs. These programs issue wireless commands to the robots which in turn reply with acknowledgements and sensor readings. The programs run in the browser making debugging much easier and eliminating the need to download anything to the robots. Furthermore, the environment makes it possible for other users to eavesdrop on the wireless messages and hijack the robots of others. This provides an excellent motivation for cybersecurity and makes it easy to teach it in a hands-on manner. We have created a cybersecurity curriculum for a week-long summer camp for high school students. Lessons include Denial of Service attacks, their detection and mitigation, cryptography, secure key exchange, replay attacks, etc. Each day student teams solve challenge problems that their robots have to carry out while under cyber-attack by the other participants. This technology demonstration is a companion to the paper "Teaching Cybersecurity with Networked Robots." It will provide the audience with a more practical view of this novel approach to hands-on cybersecurity education. Show less

The paper presents RoboScape, a collaborative, networked robotics environment that makes key ideas in computer science accessible to groups of learners in informal learning spaces and K-12 classrooms. RoboScape is built on top of NetsBlox, an open-source, networked, visual programming environment based on Snap! that is specifically designed to introduce students to distributed computation and computer networking. RoboScape provides a twist on the state of the art of robotics learning platforms.… Show more

The paper presents RoboScape, a collaborative, networked robotics environment that makes key ideas in computer science accessible to groups of learners in informal learning spaces and K-12 classrooms. RoboScape is built on top of NetsBlox, an open-source, networked, visual programming environment based on Snap! that is specifically designed to introduce students to distributed computation and computer networking. RoboScape provides a twist on the state of the art of robotics learning platforms. First, a user's program controlling the robot runs in the browser and not on the robot. There is no need to download the program to the robot and hence, development and debugging become much easier. Second, the wireless communication between a student's program and the robot can be overheard by the programs of the other students. This makes cybersecurity an immediate need that students realize and can work to address. We have designed and delivered a cybersecurity summer camp to 24 students in grades between 7 and 12. The paper summarizes the technology behind RoboScape, the hands-on curriculum of the camp and the lessons learned. Show less

We present a novel way to program wireless networked educational robots. RoboScape is a new service that we added to NetsBlox, a collaborative, blocks-based programming environment based on Snap! NetsBlox provides simple abstractions to create distributed programs. RoboScape uses these abstractions, Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) and message passing, to program the robot. The program runs in the browser and not on the robot. It remotely controls the robots with RPCs and the robot provides sensor… Show more

We present a novel way to program wireless networked educational robots. RoboScape is a new service that we added to NetsBlox, a collaborative, blocks-based programming environment based on Snap! NetsBlox provides simple abstractions to create distributed programs. RoboScape uses these abstractions, Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) and message passing, to program the robot. The program runs in the browser and not on the robot. It remotely controls the robots with RPCs and the robot provides sensor values by sending messages back. This approaches makes programming robots as easy as programming sprites. Show less

Synergistic learning of computational thinking (CT) and STEM has proven to be an effective method for enhancing CT education as well as advancing learning in many STEM domains. Domain Specific Modeling Languages (DSML) facilitate the building of computational modeling frameworks that are directly linked to STEM content, thus making it easier for students to focus on concepts and practices. At the same time, teachers can more easily relate curricular content to the model building tasks. This… Show more

Synergistic learning of computational thinking (CT) and STEM has proven to be an effective method for enhancing CT education as well as advancing learning in many STEM domains. Domain Specific Modeling Languages (DSML) facilitate the building of computational modeling frameworks that are directly linked to STEM content, thus making it easier for students to focus on concepts and practices. At the same time, teachers can more easily relate curricular content to the model building tasks. This paper discusses the design, development, and implementation of a robotics DSML to support a middle school geometry curriculum. Show less

NetsBlox is a visual blocks-based programming language that supports distributed programming. NetsBlox includes Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) that provide access to a set of online scientific data sources such as maps, weather, earthquakes, astronomy imagery, air pollution, etc. This demonstration shows how to use these RPCs to create engaging science projects.

NetsBlox is a visual blocks-based programming language extending Snap! with a few carefully selected abstractions to support distributed programming. In this paper, we argue that with the help of NetsBlox, some of the fundamental concepts of computer networking can be included in the high school computer science curriculum. Specifically, we describe a set of curricular units that would fit nicely in the AP Computer Science Principles course. High school students in two short-term studies showed… Show more

NetsBlox is a visual blocks-based programming language extending Snap! with a few carefully selected abstractions to support distributed programming. In this paper, we argue that with the help of NetsBlox, some of the fundamental concepts of computer networking can be included in the high school computer science curriculum. Specifically, we describe a set of curricular units that would fit nicely in the AP Computer Science Principles course. High school students in two short-term studies showed great engagement and were able to complete simple computer networking tasks.
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The paper introduces a visual programming language and corresponding web and cloud-based development environment called NetsBlox. NetsBlox is an extension of Snap! and builds upon its visual formalism as well as its open source code base. NetsBlox adds distributed programming capabilities by introducing two well-known abstractions to block-based programming: message passing and Remote Procedure Calls (RPC). Messages containing data can be exchanged by two or more NetsBlox programs running on… Show more

The paper introduces a visual programming language and corresponding web and cloud-based development environment called NetsBlox. NetsBlox is an extension of Snap! and builds upon its visual formalism as well as its open source code base. NetsBlox adds distributed programming capabilities by introducing two well-known abstractions to block-based programming: message passing and Remote Procedure Calls (RPC). Messages containing data can be exchanged by two or more NetsBlox programs running on different computers connected to the Internet. RPCs are called on a client program and are executed on the NetsBlox server. These two abstractions make it possible to create distributed programs such as multi-player games or clientserver applications. We believe that NetsBlox not only teaches basic distributed programming concepts but also provides increased motivation for high-school students to become creators and not just consumers of technology. NetsBlox is an educational visual programming language which extends Berkeleys Snap!Provides capabilities for building distributed applications.Introduces remote procedure calls and messaging networking abstractions.Provides access to external APIs, such as Google Maps, from within NetsBlox. Show less