Experiments in teaching Neural Networks

Excel Based







Scratch-based
More details available at https://computingnorthampton.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/miniproject-using-scratch-to-build-and.html including links to the code.


All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Miniproject: Using Scratch to build and train a neuron

1. Single Neurone

 
Instructions:

• Set the inputs by pressing the buttons marked input 1 and input 2 (Red is off(False or 0) and Green is on(True or 1))
• Change the weights by changing weights 1 to 3, wx goes with input x and weight 3 is the bias.
• To activate the neuron you need to click on the the yellow ball ('the neuron').

The video below show it in action and explains the code.


To see the code go to https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/131892234/ .



2. Training a Neurone
In this part, the training of a neuron all written in Scratch is tackled. The video shows it action and you can have a go at using the software yourself at the end of the post. The Scratch code can be found at https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/132915502/







All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruonAll views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Creating Interactive Content using Scratch

Two members of the Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies, Dr Maurice Hendrix (Lecturer) and Tom Rose (Undergraduate Student) have been involved in the cross-school project around flipped classrooms with colleagues from the Schools of Health and The Arts.

The following link:  http://dna-fc.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/creating-interactive-content-with.html shows the work Tom Rose posted on using the programming language Scratch to create interactive educational content.

To read more about the project go to: http://dna-fc.blogspot.co.uk/



If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with

BCS Event Report: Raspberry Pi

Two parallel Raspberry Pi activities were run by the BCS Northampton branch at the Newton Building, University of Northampton, UK 











The first activity was aimed at generating interest in the use of of VOIP on the Raspberry PI  and covered a number of topics:-

• Outline of VOIP as a voice technology
• Advantages of VOIP telephony for business and the consumer.
• FreePBX on the Raspberry PI - build, configuration and usage.
• Discussion of VOIP trunk technology, VOIP services.
• Demo of a PI FreePBX system with two VOIP phones.

The second activity was aimed a beginners to the Raspberry Pi and was run by staff and a student from the Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies, University of Northampton. 

The central aim was, what can you do with that Raspberry Pi this half term? You brought a Raspberry Pi but never got around to using it, what could you try?  

During this session some basic example activities were shown. 

• Basic Scratch programming activity:- Bonfire Night Game. Create graphical stars and make them act like fireworks - shot across the screen, multiply, expand changing colours and then shrink
• Scratch control of LEDs via a Raspberry Pi making two LEDs flash all under the control of a Scratch based program.
• Junkbot  program a robot made from a Raspberry Pi, a drinks can, pens, and a motor and get it to draw (see the video below and http://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/ for more details)

The event attracted both members of the BCS and non-members (youngest two being 7 years old).








If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with.

British Computer Society (Northampton) Have your Pi…Now What?

Drop-in Workshop: Have your Pi…Now What?     

Facilitator-

Dr Scott Turner

Associate Professor in Computing and Immersive Technologies, University of Northampton

Public Engagement Ambassador and National STEM Ambassador

Date - 30^th October 2014

Where- Second Floor, Newton Building, University of Northampton NN2 6JB

Time  -   19:30-21:00

Aim  -    What can you do with that Raspberry Pi this half term, you brought it but never got around to using?

  

  This is one of the two Raspberry Pi focused parallel session being run on 30^th October2014 by BCS Northampton. In this session some basic example activities will be shown and facilitated. It is an informal drop-in session, so come have a try at some simple programming and control with the Raspberry Pi. All based around a fun, free programming language Scratch (scratch.mit.edu).

Audience-

              Beginners to Raspberry Pi, including general public, members and non-members. Children are welcome to this.

Example Activities-

1.      Basic Scratch programming activity:- Bonfire Night Game. Which can be done on either the Raspberry Pi or PCs.

2.      Scratch control of LEDs via a Raspberry Pi.

3.      Junkbot – be one of the first to program a ‘robot’ made from a Raspberry Pi, a drinks can, pens, and a motor and get it to draw  (see http://youtu.be/lsIEEvpT3ik and http://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/  for more details)

If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk

Raspberry Pi Robot from junk

Figure 1

In previous posts the idea of adding some programming into the a 'bot' made of junk, a junkbot, was briefly discussed (http://computingnorthampton.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/physical-computing-junkbots-with-brain.html) and the use of LEGO to do this was discussed in a recent post (http://computingnorthampton.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/controlling-lego-junkbot.html)

In this post the aim is to discuss using a Raspberry Pi and Scratch to do this. Including:
- Choice of motor controller card for the 'bot'
- Provide an example of a drawing junkbot controlled through Scratch and Raspberrry Pi


Choice of interface/Controller card
The card choosen was the 4Tronix PiRoCon card  (http://4tronix.co.uk/store/index.php?rt=product/product&product_id=182). Selected for four reasons
- Price is reasonable (in my opinion).
- Fits straight onto the Pi through the GPIO - no extra cables needed.
- ScratchGPIO has it as an addon so it makes programming it even easier (see http://cymplecy.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/pirocon-from-4tronix/).
- Others are using it for robot projects.

Use it is quite easy plug the board directly on to the GPIO connector of the Raspberry Pi (4tronix provide some advice in section 15 of http://4tronix.co.uk/blog/?p=22 on mounting the board). The only other changes that were needed were because the motors were not powered through the DC input jack, changesto the jumper settings next to Vin Connector (see http://4tronix.co.uk/blog/?p=41 for layout)  were neededto reflect this.



Example: Drawing Raspberry Pi Junkbot
Now for the fun bit get the whole thing to draw (see Figure 1 and the video at the end)!

The junkbot itself is made up of a drinks can, three supports (we used LEGO here but it equally could be straws, sticks), a pen/pencil, and a  motor and broken propeller combination to create an unbalanced motor.

With the Raspberry Pi off, the the motor's wires are connected to the controller card at the connections for MotorA and the battery is also connected. Turn the Pi on and run ScratchGPIO5plus.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

The first task is to make the variables AddOn (which will be used to tell the program we are using the PiRoCon card) and MotorA for the motor (see Figure 3).

In Figure 4 the program can be seen, essentially the left and right key spin the junkbot clockwise or anticlockwise by setting the Motor to either +ve or -ve values from 0 to 100. The space bar is used to stop the motor.

As it moves because one of the supports is a pen it draws. See the video below to watch it draw a squiggly line - control is still a challenge.
 The bot was developed by Hayden Tetley and Scott Turner. Hayden's time was paid  for through the Nuffield Research Placements  Scheme (http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/nuffield-research-placements).

Related Links

Junkbot Raspberry Pi: 1 ScratchGPIO 

Junkbot Raspberry Pi: 2 Raspberry Pi Junkbot in action

If you would like to know more about the Junkbots project contact scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk. The views and opinions is the authors and should not be taken as representing the views of any organisation the author is associated with.

Physical Computing: Junkbots with a brain!

Figure 1

A new stage for the Junkbots project (http://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/ ) starts this week. Up to this point the junk bot building has largely being about building a moving (or drawing) 'bot' moved by vibration - limited control, but fun.

This week, A Nuffield funded bursary student starts working on investigating whether LEGO NXT or Raspberry Pi based solutions can be incorporated with the bot to add some control of the movement (still by vibration).


Idea One 

Is to add a LEGO NXT brick, plus motors that are made to vibrate, to a junkbot similar to one shown in figure 1. The motor and broken propeller combination being replaced with the NXT brick and LEGO motor. A good potential feature is it a self-contained unit with power and control together, as well as being potentially fairly simple to set-up.


Idea Two

Is to do a similar approach as idea one but keep the motor and broken propeller combination but control the motors via a Raspberry Pi.



For both approaches there are questions to be considered including 

• Will the additions be too heavy? 
• If it is too heavy could it be done with a single controlled motor?
• What is the best programming choice?
• For idea one is it the language that comes with the NXT or other programming language?
• For idea two Scratch or Python?
• How much control is there?
• For idea two is this too complex to be taken into schools.

It is hoped that in the end, there will be some resource for others to use, that involves relatively simple 'robot' programming of a junk-based robot.

Deatils of the work will be published on the Junkbots Blog (http://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/ ) as the project progresses.