Electrical Engineering And Computer Science

Professor Akos Ledeczi and Ph.D. student Brian Broll work with their NetsBlox intuitive visual programming platform. (Vanderbilt University) Vanderbilt University Professor of Computer Engineering Akos Ledeczi doesn’t want everyone to become a programmer. But understanding how computers think, interact, and do what we want them to do – those are 21st century skills, he said. In NetsBlox, a visual programming environment, Ledeczi and an interdisciplinary team are developing a teaching tool that introduces the basics and a high-level view of distributed computing. The team has worked with students as young as middle schoolers and has several upcoming camps and workshops with young learners as well as high school students. NetsBlox is built on top of Snap!, an environment created at the University of California at Berkeley. Snap! is based on Scratch, the best-known programming tool for kids from the MIT Media Lab. Young students use Scratch to create basic Pong-like games, animations or virtual stories. Snap!, a visual drag-and-drop programming language, picks up where Scratch leaves off, making it an appropriate introduction to computer science for high school and college students. Public data sets expand possibilities NetsBlox adds message passing, a way computers communicate with each other; access to a set of online data sources in the public domain – maps, weather, movies, trivia, and earthquakes are a few; and introduces distributed programming. The goal is to make writing a distributed computer program much like solving a simple puzzle. With NetsBlox, for example, an average high school student can create a simple multiplayer game, run it on her phone and play against a friend over the internet after just a few weeks of instruction. The popularity of massively multiplayer online role-playing games made this approach a “no-brainer,” Ledeczi said. The jump to distributed programming and the computational thinking behind it is significant. A distributed program is actually multiple programs running on different computers communicating and synchronizing with each other. Think of the difference between going out to dinner alone or organizing a wedding reception, including picking the date and time, confirming the most important guests can make it, sending invitations, organizing transportation, reserving the place, ordering catering and booking a band. Distributed programming can be far more complex than simple two-person games, but a game introduces the concepts and forces students to program information to send somewhere else plus consider delays and response times. With the data sets, students can create movie quiz games and trivia contests to play with each other. Data on earthquakes, air pollution, astronomy, and weather can be the foundation for a school science project. Read More

Awards and honors were presented by Dean Philippe Fauchet May 11, 2017, to seniors at the School of Engineering’s annual Commencement Reception. Duncan Matthew Morgan, from Woodstock, Georgia, is Founder’s Medalist for the School of Engineering and is graduating with a bachelor of engineering in… Read More

Twenty-nine projects have been selected to receive seed grants to support pilot research or developmental projects on equity, diversity and inclusion. The Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion awarded the grants, with support from Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos and Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs… Read More

Six engineering faculty members have been named to endowed chairs, including five who now hold Cornelius Vanderbilt posts. “The School is fortunate to have exceptional faculty doing extraordinary work and it is fitting that they are recognized with an appointment as a named professor,” said Dean Philippe Fauchet. “This support… Read More

Computer science professors Doug Schmidt and Jules White will offer a free seminar as part of a slate of 2017 Commencement activities. The topic – Tackling Big Questions with Mobile Cloud Computing – is from their University Course offered during the 2016-17 academic year. There will be an open Q&A… Read More

One corner of Design Day 2017, with an over-under materials handling system designed for Nissan. (John Russell/Vanderbilt University) The School of Engineering’s annual Design Day is a banquet of innovation, problem-solving, teamwork, and design thinking at work. The 2017 event – a mashup of a sophisticated science fair and electronics show… Read More

Three other engineering students are winners Two student projects—one using an interactive webpage that explores the complexity of sorting algorithms, and the other a study of human movement over space and time —were the top winners in a Vanderbilt student data visualization competition held April 13 in conjunction with the… Read More

Want to know the chances a bill in Congress will pass? Ask PredictGov. When Republican Congressional leaders shelved their replacement to the Affordable Care Act, John Nay, a recent Vanderbilt computational decision science Ph.D., was not surprised. PredictGov, the centerpiece of the A.I. startup launched by Nay and two other… Read More

For engineering and computer science seniors, Design Day is the culmination of two semesters spent tackling design challenges from sponsors with real design needs. For the larger Vanderbilt community and the general public, it is a chance to be wowed. This year’s showcase is Monday, April 24, from 3-6 p.m. Read More

Researchers from Vanderbilt and two other universities charged with reinventing and protecting America’s power grid are taking their first solutions on a demonstration tour. Their idea is to build an underlying, open-source software platform to support decentralized applications that boost the power grid’s resilience and protect it from dangers ranging… Read More