David M. Chelberg

Since my PCC days (high school and early college years), I have graduated from Stanford University with both a BS in Mathematics, and a PhD in Computer Science. I now teach at Ohio University in Southeastern Ohio (a very beatiful part of the country). I am the graduate chairman of the school of electrical engineering and computer science.

I wrote a series of articles about computer chess for PCC many years ago. In looking back I guess that was the start of my interest in artificial intelligence.

I ALWAYS use games to teach AI. I always look for odd games noone else has seen so that students can not find programs to play them on the web. My current project uses the game brainline. It is an old game my wife played growing up in Guyana, I think the game is British in origin. Have you heard of it?

My PhD was in the area of computer vision. Currently I am working on several projects related to AI. One really exciting project is developing a team of robots to compete in the international RoboCup competition. This is a kind of world-cup soccer competition for autonomous robots.

I also have recently submitted a grant to train local teachers to introduce robotics concepts in gradeschool and middle school. One of the goals is to interest more students in science, engineering and computer science, and to enhance the curriculum through the use of manipulatives to make these concepts concrete.

We have proposed buying 20 Lego mindstorms kits to get started. Some of the education faculty I am working with have already tried a pilot program teaching teachers to use Lego Mindstorms. I am definitely interested in your book. I'll keep you informed of the success of our grant proposal.

The robocup initiative also has a robocup Jr. competition for Lego robots. There are several ways to compete (at different levels): dancing robots, sumo robots, soccer playing mindstorms robots (they use a infrared transmitting ball). We hope to use the basic ideas of the robocup Jr. competition as project ideas for teams of students. The area around Ohio University in SE Ohio is fairly poor and rural. Our goal in writing the proposal was to help to inspire students to think of careers outside their local experience.

My wife and I homeschool our kids, and we have used Lego to teach our own kids the physics of simple machines, and more recently robotics. I also like to play with mindstorms myself. :).