(photo) report of the Baltic Competition
It is good for students, for which they have not come up with anything, and the Imagine Cup and the Hack Day and Chaos Constructions , and this is only the first thing that came to mind. And what to do talented (or consider themselves as such) students?
But the schoolchildren were not offended either, and I will tell you about the remarkable annual event that took place a week ago in St. Petersburg (but the contest is all-Russian, and indeed, international).
Under the cut, you will see 6 megabytes of photos of happy guys and their pieces, seasoned with my detached reflections on education and a review of the works in the sections “Technique” and “Computer Science”.
My attention was attracted by the robot, unfortunately not huge, not military, and very relatively similar to humans. The peaceful nature of the robot (which cannot be said from its “facial expression”) and the innate sense of rhythm allows it to beat the strike party in any relatively simple composition. As it is easy to notice, it is built on the basis of Lego Mindstorms, which you already know . In addition to the difficulty in constructing the robot's limbs (after all, they need to perform up to 10 exact beats per second), the problem of synchronizing the drum part with the rest of the MIDI file (transfer to the controller via Bluetooth) was solved. And this is not only in practice - the guys provided theoretical calculations substantiating the methods used. And here are the designers themselves:
')
I am glad that some schools have the opportunity to “take into circulation” innovative technologies, I would have had such a designer about 5 years ago ... However, this alone is not enough, because without a research approach, the result can hardly be surprising. Educational institutions should push for reasonable experimentation, and not impose template approaches. Who would have thought that an ordinary dental drill can perform precise work when carving wood?
And if you spend enough time (the work on the brooch and the hairpin took almost 2 months, in the evenings after school, but do not be alarmed, these are certainly not mythical man months), then the result may surprise:
Is it difficult to ensure that students “calmly sit out” a lesson? Of course, perseverance refers to the personal qualities of each student, but to inspire them is the primary task of the teacher.
One interest is not enough; when a person does not understand why he is doing the work, any difficulty can lead him out of the "true path." Therefore, the guys should have a definite motivation, but it cannot simply be imposed, the task of the teachers is to explain why the guys should be interested in learning themselves, prove to them that it will give definite results, and if not now, but in the future.
For this you need to set students specific tasks. They will not invent tasks for themselves, they will not find more or less interesting problems in school problem books. An experienced person (supervisor, mentor), well versed in the subject matter, can easily make a list of feasible scientific (and near science) problems.
I’m not sure that the task of fighting pipe icing is something completely new. However, a person trying to solve it must deal with physics, mathematics and even economics. Interesting applied results are rarely obtained on the basis of a single science, ideas should be sought at their interface.
It is always a pleasure to communicate with someone who has an idea of ​​what he is doing. This is not abstract work, where several sources are mixed without much understanding - it is a living study that gives “live” results.
Let us return to the conference itself, it is worth noting that the form of "reporting" is poster. It is not enough to do the work, to solve the problem, you also need to be able to tell about the achieved results, answer the questions. Therefore, such conferences and contests are pushing children to “correct” communication, the ability to quickly and clearly formulate a thought, to present themselves and their creation.
The Baltic competition is not the only event with a similar theme, there are its analogues held in Moscow, and the final competition is held in the USA and is called the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) . Yes, yes, successful schoolchildren will be “sent” to defend their work as much as to America (and by the way, a great way to see the world).
By the way, ACM contests have nothing to do with these contests, although here and there guys usually come out from the same schools, but the direction is completely different. And guys, usually others. Olympiad activity obviously has its advantages, but like any sport, it also has a negative impact.
Here, all the results (if possible) are new and publicly available, in the Olympics (almost always) the same methods, and fierce competition between the participants (which makes them, of course, hide their decisions). Creative contests expand the horizons, and Olympiads increase the concentration of knowledge in one area.
And every year, while participating in contests, we write merge sorting and read text files, but for the first time I ran into a model of an assembly line for shuttles:
Inside the red box "sits" a full-fledged programmable microcontroller that controls other equipment: servomotors, a cascade of LEDs, and an audible warning system. I would also be proud of myself if I could create such things.
The author of a homemade machine for milling printed circuit boards, computer controlled via COM-port. Drivers (not a program, but a mechanic) for the horizontal and vertical progress guys (several developers) designed themselves.
For 7 minutes, such a machine cut out the logo of the TV channel, containing smooth bends. Good result:
But a demonstration of another robot based on Lego Mindstorms; He likes to play billiards. True, the task of the game is simplified here - you need to "drive" the balls into the pockets of the corresponding colors, and to meet the time per minute. But it is not as easy as it seems, because you need to correctly recognize the ball, the hole, calculate the required speed and direction of the throw, take into account the possible deviation situation when throwing (for example, because of an uneven surface), finish the ball. And if the ball rolled, you need to find it. And all this means quite primitive sensors with a refresh rate of up to two times per second (and this is hardly enough).
It is easy to see that the tests take place in a very informal setting, and are accompanied by communication with the participants. And it’s not scary that there was no special billiard table, it was replaced with a piece of paper and improvised "bumpers" that had to be put in real time. Something Chaos Constructions Hackaround recalled.
Still, poster presentations are more pleasant than class reports, there is an opportunity for participants to find an individual approach to the composition of the jury (and what about without it) to other participants. And the audience receives more attention - in the aggregate, there are up to 6 hours to show a work, against, on average, 10 minutes for an audit report.
It is very pleasant to talk with a person who understands the architecture of RISC-processors, is ready to offer his solution and even its implementation on the basis of FPGA. An interesting design feature is a flexible architecture that allows variable-bit registers.
More than two hundred works in various sections were presented at the competition, not only “Technique” and “Computer Science”, but also “Physics”, “Biology”, “Chemistry”. For 6 hours they can not be bypassed entirely, and there was no such goal. But I am sure that there are quite a few among them. At least, the jury thinks so.
There were also representatives of the fair sex (and who said that science is only for men?).
But unfortunately, in the technical sections, the ratio of girls to boys is clearly not in their favor. And maybe nothing to regret :)
And here are the winners; Students of the Continuous Mathematical Education Laboratory will go to America, with work, not surprisingly, in mathematics, “special Ries-Sushkevich semigroups”.
This award does not end there, about a third of the contestants were encouraged by valuable prizes and gifts provided by the sponsors of the competition.
Here is such a "window to the world" for young professionals.
But the schoolchildren were not offended either, and I will tell you about the remarkable annual event that took place a week ago in St. Petersburg (but the contest is all-Russian, and indeed, international).
Under the cut, you will see 6 megabytes of photos of happy guys and their pieces, seasoned with my detached reflections on education and a review of the works in the sections “Technique” and “Computer Science”.
My attention was attracted by the robot, unfortunately not huge, not military, and very relatively similar to humans. The peaceful nature of the robot (which cannot be said from its “facial expression”) and the innate sense of rhythm allows it to beat the strike party in any relatively simple composition. As it is easy to notice, it is built on the basis of Lego Mindstorms, which you already know . In addition to the difficulty in constructing the robot's limbs (after all, they need to perform up to 10 exact beats per second), the problem of synchronizing the drum part with the rest of the MIDI file (transfer to the controller via Bluetooth) was solved. And this is not only in practice - the guys provided theoretical calculations substantiating the methods used. And here are the designers themselves:
')
I am glad that some schools have the opportunity to “take into circulation” innovative technologies, I would have had such a designer about 5 years ago ... However, this alone is not enough, because without a research approach, the result can hardly be surprising. Educational institutions should push for reasonable experimentation, and not impose template approaches. Who would have thought that an ordinary dental drill can perform precise work when carving wood?
And if you spend enough time (the work on the brooch and the hairpin took almost 2 months, in the evenings after school, but do not be alarmed, these are certainly not mythical man months), then the result may surprise:
Is it difficult to ensure that students “calmly sit out” a lesson? Of course, perseverance refers to the personal qualities of each student, but to inspire them is the primary task of the teacher.
One interest is not enough; when a person does not understand why he is doing the work, any difficulty can lead him out of the "true path." Therefore, the guys should have a definite motivation, but it cannot simply be imposed, the task of the teachers is to explain why the guys should be interested in learning themselves, prove to them that it will give definite results, and if not now, but in the future.
For this you need to set students specific tasks. They will not invent tasks for themselves, they will not find more or less interesting problems in school problem books. An experienced person (supervisor, mentor), well versed in the subject matter, can easily make a list of feasible scientific (and near science) problems.
I’m not sure that the task of fighting pipe icing is something completely new. However, a person trying to solve it must deal with physics, mathematics and even economics. Interesting applied results are rarely obtained on the basis of a single science, ideas should be sought at their interface.
It is always a pleasure to communicate with someone who has an idea of ​​what he is doing. This is not abstract work, where several sources are mixed without much understanding - it is a living study that gives “live” results.
Let us return to the conference itself, it is worth noting that the form of "reporting" is poster. It is not enough to do the work, to solve the problem, you also need to be able to tell about the achieved results, answer the questions. Therefore, such conferences and contests are pushing children to “correct” communication, the ability to quickly and clearly formulate a thought, to present themselves and their creation.
The Baltic competition is not the only event with a similar theme, there are its analogues held in Moscow, and the final competition is held in the USA and is called the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) . Yes, yes, successful schoolchildren will be “sent” to defend their work as much as to America (and by the way, a great way to see the world).
By the way, ACM contests have nothing to do with these contests, although here and there guys usually come out from the same schools, but the direction is completely different. And guys, usually others. Olympiad activity obviously has its advantages, but like any sport, it also has a negative impact.
Here, all the results (if possible) are new and publicly available, in the Olympics (almost always) the same methods, and fierce competition between the participants (which makes them, of course, hide their decisions). Creative contests expand the horizons, and Olympiads increase the concentration of knowledge in one area.
And every year, while participating in contests, we write merge sorting and read text files, but for the first time I ran into a model of an assembly line for shuttles:
Inside the red box "sits" a full-fledged programmable microcontroller that controls other equipment: servomotors, a cascade of LEDs, and an audible warning system. I would also be proud of myself if I could create such things.
The author of a homemade machine for milling printed circuit boards, computer controlled via COM-port. Drivers (not a program, but a mechanic) for the horizontal and vertical progress guys (several developers) designed themselves.
For 7 minutes, such a machine cut out the logo of the TV channel, containing smooth bends. Good result:
But a demonstration of another robot based on Lego Mindstorms; He likes to play billiards. True, the task of the game is simplified here - you need to "drive" the balls into the pockets of the corresponding colors, and to meet the time per minute. But it is not as easy as it seems, because you need to correctly recognize the ball, the hole, calculate the required speed and direction of the throw, take into account the possible deviation situation when throwing (for example, because of an uneven surface), finish the ball. And if the ball rolled, you need to find it. And all this means quite primitive sensors with a refresh rate of up to two times per second (and this is hardly enough).
It is easy to see that the tests take place in a very informal setting, and are accompanied by communication with the participants. And it’s not scary that there was no special billiard table, it was replaced with a piece of paper and improvised "bumpers" that had to be put in real time. Something Chaos Constructions Hackaround recalled.
Still, poster presentations are more pleasant than class reports, there is an opportunity for participants to find an individual approach to the composition of the jury (and what about without it) to other participants. And the audience receives more attention - in the aggregate, there are up to 6 hours to show a work, against, on average, 10 minutes for an audit report.
It is very pleasant to talk with a person who understands the architecture of RISC-processors, is ready to offer his solution and even its implementation on the basis of FPGA. An interesting design feature is a flexible architecture that allows variable-bit registers.
More than two hundred works in various sections were presented at the competition, not only “Technique” and “Computer Science”, but also “Physics”, “Biology”, “Chemistry”. For 6 hours they can not be bypassed entirely, and there was no such goal. But I am sure that there are quite a few among them. At least, the jury thinks so.
There were also representatives of the fair sex (and who said that science is only for men?).
But unfortunately, in the technical sections, the ratio of girls to boys is clearly not in their favor. And maybe nothing to regret :)
And here are the winners; Students of the Continuous Mathematical Education Laboratory will go to America, with work, not surprisingly, in mathematics, “special Ries-Sushkevich semigroups”.
This award does not end there, about a third of the contestants were encouraged by valuable prizes and gifts provided by the sponsors of the competition.
Here is such a "window to the world" for young professionals.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/83758/
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