The K12 Engineering Education Podcast

Distributed systems rule much of new technology today, as software programs exist across multiple computers, servers, phones, and smart devices. How can students learn to program these systems? Start with a visual programming environment, says Dr. Akos Ledeczi from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Ledeczi is an electrical and computer engineer who researches distributed systems and how to teach computer science. His research group created the NetsBlox block-based programming platform, based on SNAP and similar to Scratch, but it also has capabilities built-in for distributed or parallel programming. Ledeczi discusses the NetsBlox platform, their curriculum for teaching high schoolers, and their Roboscape project to link NetsBlox with robotics and cybersecurity education.

Episode cover art photo by Alex Knight from Pexels.

Related to this episode:

• Dr. Akos Ledezci: http://www.isis.vanderbilt.edu/akos

• MATLAB software: https://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab.html

• Scratch language: https://scratch.mit.edu/

• Snap language: https://snap.berkeley.edu/

• Netsblox: https://netsblox.org/

• Web APIs list from MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API

• Roboscape: https://netsblox.org/cybersecurity

• Parallax ActivityBot 360: https://www.parallax.com/product/32600

• Article on Anki going out of business, from The Robot Report: https://www.therobotreport.com/anki-addresses-shutdown-ongoing-support-for-robots/

• C2STEM curriculum – https://c2stem.org/

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Cybersecurity needs more professionals working in the field, and guest Nicole

Bushong from Houston shares why. They explain critical issues today in digital

crime, cyberwarfare, hacking, public safety, and diversity of the tech

workforce. They also explain key aspects of their own path toward this field,

including navigating the still male-majority field of cybersecurity, working in

a women's tech organization at The University of Houston, and getting educated

while having dyslexia. Related to this episode: • Engie North America:

http://www.engie-na.com/ • Women in Cybersecurity, University of Houston

(WICSUH): https://www.wicsuh.org/ • HouSecCon, Houston Security Conference:

http://houstonseccon.org/ • "We've Entered a New Age of Cyberwar":

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/trump-cyber-russia-power-hacking.html

• Schlumberger: https://www.slb.com/ • Video on being a cyber threat

intelligence analyst at Chevron:

https://www.chevron.com/stories/i-am-a-cyber-threat-intelligence-analyst •

Trailer for Zero Days documentary on Stuxnet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VgIayOpjEc • APTs, advanced persistent threats:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_persistent_threat • DNC hacks 2016

elections:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/07/13/timeline-how-russian-agents-allegedly-hacked-the-dnc-and-clintons-campaign/?utm_term=.89d46f83cf28

• "Russia's Elete Hackers Ma Have New Phishing Tricks":

https://www.wired.com/story/russia-fancy-bear-hackers-phishing/ • Simulated

phishing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_phishing • RSA Archer, 3rd

party vendor management:

https://www.rsa.com/en-us/products/integrated-risk-management • Hack The Box,

penetration testing challenge: https://www.hackthebox.eu/ • "Women Represent 20

Percent of the Global Cybersecurity Workforce in 2019":

https://cybersecurityventures.com/women-in-cybersecurity/ • Dyslexia:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dyslexia/symptoms-causes/syc-20353552

• "Looking at Irlen syndrome through a different lens":

https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/sc-health-1112-irlen-kids-reading-20141104-story.html

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net.

Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us

coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for

making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production

of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

How can you teach universal design to kids and teens? Have them build accessible games and books, according to The Build a Better Book project, from The University of Colorado Boulder. Guests Dr. Stacey Forsythe and Dr. Kathryn Penzkover develop the Build a Better Book project at UC Boulder, which provides curriculum for schools and libraries to teach people to create books and games for the visually impaired. Along the way, they can learn about the design process, makerspace technology, the arts, empathy, and community engagement. Drs. Forsythe and Penzkover spoke on the podcast during South by Southwest (SXSW) 2019 in Austin, Texas.

The cover art for this episode shows a picture book and a chessboard designed by participants in the Build a Better Book project, as shown during SXSW. Both were designed to preserve function and aesthetics even when the reader or player can’t see.

Related to this episode:

• Build a Better Book project: http://buildabetterbook.org

• Dr. Stacy Forsythe: https://www.colorado.edu/sciencediscovery/stacey-forsyth

• Dr. Kathryn Penzkover: https://www.colorado.edu/sciencediscovery/kathryn-penzkover

• CU Science Discovery: https://www.colorado.edu/sciencediscovery/

• Wikki stix: https://www.wikkistix.com/

• Universal design, as described from the North Carolina State University College of Design: https://projects.ncsu.edu/ncsu/design/cud/about_ud/udprinciples.htm

• Twitter profile for Build a Better Book: https://twitter.com/buildbetterbook

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

In this age of growing internet technology and connected computers, cybersecurity engineers and computer scientists will be more critical. Software engineer Sam Houston joins the podcast to talk about how she got into the security field, led by interests in computers and a desire to protect those in need. Sam is also a former student of Rachel, and we talk about key memories in her K-12 and college education – shoutouts to Miss Avery and Dr. Burris.

Related to this episode:

• Target hack in 2013: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/target-settles-2013-hacked-customer-data-breach-18-5-million-n764031

• Sam Houston State University: https://www.shsu.edu/

• Sam Houston digital forensics PhD: http://catalog.shsu.edu/graduate/college-departments/science-and-engineering-technology/computer-science/digital-and-cyber-forensic-science-phd/

• FBI Field Office in Houston: https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/houston

• Virus threat that deletes itself: https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-finds-new-trojan-malware-that-deletes-itself/

• Physics of a trebuchet: http://www.stormthecastle.com/trebuchet/trebuchet-physics.htm

• Building a trebuchet lesson plan: https://tryengineering.org/teacher/trebuchet-toss/

• Stamps saying “You shall not pass” from Gandalf, and similar products: http://www.geekystamps.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

• Ada language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language)

• Intuit internships: https://careers.intuit.com/job-category/21/university

• Raytheon internships: https://jobs.raytheon.com/college-jobs

• Grace Hopper Conference: https://ghc.anitab.org/

• Peopleware investigations from IBM: https://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Teams-3rd/dp/0321934113

• Grace Hopper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

If you missed the 2019 edition of the South by Southwest Education (SXSW Edu) conference in Austin, Texas, we rehash some highlights that you may have missed. We talk about empathy, accessibility, and a few new tech tools available to educators discovered at the conference.

Related to this episode:

• SXSW Edu: https://sxswedu.com

• UT McCombs School of Business: https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/

• Yes, And game, as described by Mary Elisabeth: https://medium.com/improv4/saying-yes-and-a-principle-for-improv-business-life-fd050bccf7e3

• Build a Better Book project at CU Boulder: https://www.colorado.edu/project/bbb/

• Empathic lead user analysis, as described in a study: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1604193

• Keynote of Patrick Awuah of Ashesi Univesrity at SXSW EDU 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DejcJynozg

• Humble ISD PBL curriculum related to Hurricane Harvey: https://www.humbleisd.net/Page/108658

• MindCet, Israeli firm for voice technology in education: http://www.mindcet.org/en/

• Dyscalculia simulator from Understood.edu: https://www.understood.org/en/tools/through-your-childs-eyes

• Google Slides automatic live captioning: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9109474?hl=en

• Video of Google live captioning from the Pios Labs Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BupUR7ElQPk/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

• Video of the VR Merge tool showing a model of the solar system: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bum3ekGF0MT/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

• Unity3D platform for authoring digital games and environments: https://unity.com/

• Cult of Pedagogy blog: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/

• Jennifer Gonzalez keynote, “The Aerodynamics of Exceptional Schools”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s_NkSEWJZg

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Texans across the state and across the political divide agree: public school funding needs fixing. What that means exactly, however, is tricky. In Part 1, Texas State Representative Donna Howard explains the school finance conundrum and its evolution over the years, along with some potential solutions floating around the legislature. In Part 2, political consultant Kolby Monnig argues that citizens must influence education laws by communicating with their representatives, and she demystifies that process. Lastly, in Part 3, educators, school support personnel, and unions rally for K-12 education reforms across the board.

Related to this episode:

• Representative Donna Howard: https://house.texas.gov/members/member-page/?district=48

• Donna Howard’s infographic on Texas school finance, on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/texansforchange/photos/pcb.2262081777448971/2262081220782360/?type=3&theater

• Liar’s affidavit: https://www.dontmesswithtaxes.com/2006/10/new_liars_affid.html

• Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF) “rainy day” fund: https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/2016/september/rainy-day.php

• Texas Standard article on a first public proposal for how to reform school finance, from March 8th, 2019: https://www.texastribune.org/2019/03/08/texas-senate-files-its-version-school-finance-reform-bill/

• Kolby Monnig (@blueoceantx), Blue Ocean Consulting: https://blueoceantx.com/

• Copper pennies: https://www.texastribune.org/2011/03/31/how-to-navigate-texas-school-finance-system/

• Who Represents Me? https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home

• Texas Teacher Retirement System: https://www.trs.texas.gov/Pages/Homepage.aspx

• Texas Tribune: https://www.texastribune.org/

• Rally for Texas education funding on March 11, 2019: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190311/hundreds-of-texas-teachers-rally-at-capitol-for-funding-against-merit-pay

• Project Vida: https://www.pvida.net/

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Problem-solving, technology, and public service all combine when you work as an engineer for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Dr. Michael Sterling, PhD, is a lead water resource engineer at the US Army Corps of Engineers, Southwestern Division, and he oversees missions related to water supply, flood prevention, hydroelectric power, and more issues affecting large swaths of the USA. Dr. Sterling also discusses how he came to USACE from the fields of chemical, civil, and environmental engineering, and how to help young people get on a similar path.

Related to this episode:

• US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE): https://www.usace.army.mil/

• USACE Southwest Division (SWD): https://www.swd.usace.army.mil/

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system

• Intel International Science Fair (ISEF): https://student.societyforscience.org/intel-isef

• ROTC = Reserve Officer Training Corps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_Officers%27_Training_Corps

• Society of American Military Engineers (SAME): https://www.same.org/

• American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE): https://www.asce.org/

• 2015 Black Engineer of the Year Awards Gala: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yda663HthKw

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

The educational technology company Robolink is coming out with a new robotics platform for teaching kids the fundamentals of programming artificial intelligence (AI). Hansol Hong is the CEO and Founder of San Diego-based Robolink. Hansol discusses their latest AI education product Zümi, which won an award at the 2019 International Consumer Electronics Show for innovation. Hansol also talks about their Kickstarter campaigns, the ethics of AI in self-driving cars, drones, and more.

Related to this episode:

• Robolink: https://www.robolink.com/

• Kickstarter for Robolink’s Zümi: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robolink/driving-into-the-world-of-ai-zumi

• Rokit Smart Robot kit” https://www.robolink.com/rokit-smart/

• Arduino microcontroller: https://www.arduino.cc/

• CoDrone: https://robolink.myshopify.com/products/codrone

• Erector Sets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erector_Set

• UC San Diego: https://ucsd.edu/

• OLED screens: https://www.oled-info.com/oled-introduction

• Herbie the Love Bug: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083428/

• Raspberry Pi computer: https://www.raspberrypi.org/

• TensorFlow Keras for training learning models: https://www.tensorflow.org/guide/keras

• Three Laws of Robotics from Isaac Asimov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

• “The truth behind Facebook AI inventing a new language,” an article written by AI CTO Roman Kucera: https://towardsdatascience.com/the-truth-behind-facebook-ai-inventing-a-new-language-37c5d680e5a7

• OpenCV for machine vision: https://opencv.org/

• NGSS = Next Generation Science Standards: https://www.nextgenscience.org/

• Common Core Standards: http://www.corestandards.org/

• Udacity courses on AI: https://www.udacity.com/course/ai-artificial-intelligence-nanodegree--nd898

• MOOC = Massive open online course

• CES convention: https://www.ces.tech/

• Best of Innovation Award at CES 2019: https://www.ces.tech/News/Press-Releases/CES-Press-Release.aspx?NodeID=df3a115a-ef2a-4aa5-bde1-333397b96973

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Educator Rachel and engineer Pius introduce Season 4 and brainstorm about what interests us in K-12 engineering education today. We talk about school finance reform, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and more.

Related to this episode:

• Lego programming: https://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/learn-to-program

• Article on Facebook security breach in 2018: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/technology/facebook-hack-data-breach.html

• Article on the Stuxnet virus applied to an Iranian power plant: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/06/01/154162121/as-the-worm-turns-cybersecurity-expert-tracks-blowback-from-stuxnet

• AP CS Principles: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-computer-science-principles/course

• Texas Legislative Sessions: http://www.tcdd.texas.gov/public-policy/texas-legislature/

• Article on how school finance works right now in Texas and “Robin Hood” funding: https://www.texastribune.org/2019/02/15/texas-school-funding-how-it-works/

• The Texas Permanent School Fund: https://tea.texas.gov/finance_and_grants/permanent_school_fund/

• SBOE = State Board of Education

• Example food web in biology: https://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]:YevkaNFi@3/Energy-Flow-through-Ecosystems#fig-ch20_01_05

• TxDOT = Texas Department of Transportation: https://www.txdot.gov/

• Previous episode mentioning on improv for engineering: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep9.html

• Inside the Actor’s Studio: https://www.bravotv.com/inside-the-actors-studio

• FERPA student privacy law: https://www.colorado.edu/registrar/students/records/ferpa

• PLC = Professional Learning Community

• Engineering Word Of The Day podcast: http://engineeringwordoftheday.com/

• Mozilla Foundation: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/

• Elon Musk warns about climate change in 2015: https://www.inc.com/huffington-post/elon-musk-sounds-off-on-climate-change.html

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Engineers Sadhan and Pius continue an ongoing series of discussions on the fundamentals of mechanical engineering. Today they talk about what they remember about statics, forces, acceleration, moments, relativity, stars, and more.

Related to this episode:

• Statics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statics

• Dynamics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamics_(mechanics)

• Force: https://physics.info/newton-first/

• Newton’s Third Law: https://physics.info/newton-third/

• Theory of Relativity: https://www.space.com/17661-theory-general-relativity.html

• Moment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_(physics)

• Golden Gate Bridge: http://www.goldengatebridge.org/

• Homeostasis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeostasis

• Nuclear fusion: http://www.nuclearconnect.org/know-nuclear/science/nuclear-fusion

• Supernovas: https://www.space.com/6638-supernova.html

• Black holes: https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/black-holes

Our opening music is called “Soar,” and our closing music is called “Polar,” both by artist Chris Pop, used with permission. You can find more music by Chris Pop on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/chrispop99.

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.