Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

In the second meeting of my first Introduction to Robotics class for the first week of the third term, we started out with the training software for the use of the robotics kits, the motors, the different available sensors (light and touch) and the ways to program them.

I forgot to mention last time that the previous meeting was held in the general science mechanics lab next door instead of in the robotics lab, because at that time, there were still a lot of equipment left around on the tables by the classes of the previous terms, including my Interfacing Computer Systems lab.

I did not want the freshmen students to go into that lab and see a mess, or touching some advanced equipment that may be accidentally damaged.

The clean up (most of which was just dumping things either in the unusable pile at one corner for disposal, or, for the recyclables, in one of the empty shelves in the back wall cabinet for future sorting out) I was able to do before the first meeting of my second class, which was why I met those students of the second class in the robotics lab already for the first meeting as detailed in my previous account, although the inventory and proper division of the various parts and accessories of the robotics kit I was only able to do half on the morning of the third day of the first week and half on the fourth day, before my second meeting with each class started.

Another interesting thing about the first class was that there was one group who actually surpassed where the fastest groups of the second class reached in their first session of training.

Maybe this was because I did not have a protracted “lecture” with them at the start of that class, but they went straight to the software, or maybe it was because some of them were actually already present during the start of training of the second class.

In fact, some of them complained why I didn’t allow them to start training during their first meeting. I just pointed to the photographers present as the ones that forced me to start the second class on their training early.

Furthermore, this was how I was able to correct the wrong information I gave them on their first meeting about how many batteries to bring for their robot, six instead of four.

Session 935 lacked 2 batteries. Class dismissed.