MASLab Survey – IAP 2006

Thanks for participating in MASLab this year. Only with your feedback can we improve MASLab. Please think about the last four weeks and spend some time thoughtfully filling out this survey. Return it to a staff member during lab or send it (anonymously, if you wish) via campus mail to Finale Doshi in office 32-331.

Your Name and Team # (optional):	_____________________________	__________________

Name	Team #

Please rate and, if you would like, comment on the below. If the question is not applicable, please leave the question blank, rather than selecting the “neutral” option.

Building Materials

Lab’s inventory of building materials

Never enough	Adequate	Great!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Lab’s inventory of building tools

Never enough	Adequate	Great!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Rules allowing non-kit items

Disliked/robots should use identical parts	Neutral	Liked

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

$100 spending limit

Too low	Just right	Too high

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Pegboard Prototypes

Delayed our robot’s progress	No net (dis)advantage	Helped jumpstart our team

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

What was your favorite building material(s) and why? (i.e., wood, metal, plexigleass)

Write down one item that we should stock more of/a greater variety of:

Write down one tool we should add to our workshop:

Eden, ORC, and Sensors

Computational Power of Eden: how hampered did you feel by its speed?

Too slow for anything interesting	Adequate	Overkill

1	2	3	4	5	6

Use of motors with integrated gear box

Prefer to build (ala 6.270)	Neutral	Never get rid of em!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Robustness of ORC board

Crashed too often	Acceptable	Never crashed

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Robustness of Eden and Hard Drives

Eden

Crashed too often	Acceptable	Never crashed

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Hard Drive

Crashed too often	Acceptable	Never crashed

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Rate the sensors:

Worthless Sensor	Neutral	Super useful Sensor

Short-range IR:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Long-range IR

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Gyro

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Encoders

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Push buttons/Whiskers

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

What is the single most important thing that we should work to change/improve as far as hardware goes?

Software

Documentation of libraries (Orc, BotClient, OrcSpy, various Channels, ImageUtil)

Not useful/problematic	Neutral	Really Useful, No Problems

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Adequate resources: Did you feel like you had enough software resources at your disposal? Should we have provided a greater amount of functionality, or did you like home-brewing things?

No, I felt limited/We had to write too much	Neutral	All I wanted from you

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Rate the Java language as a robot controller language

Ghastly	Annoying, but we coped	Awesome

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Rate the system we used to update maslab software

Ghastly	Annoying, but we coped	Awesome

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

What is the single most important thing that we should work to change/improve as far as software goes?

Contest

The game, and the rules

Too easy	Just right	Too hard

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

The final contest playing field

Too easy	Just right	Too hard

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

What would you change about the playing field?

What would you change about the contest?

Course Structure

Value of 6 units of P/F credit

Not a factor	Might be handy	Now I’ll graduate!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Value of 6 EDPs

Not a factor	Might be handy	Now I’ll graduate!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Effort required for credit

Way too much effort required	Perfect	Was willing to do more

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

What do you think a fair participation fee is (per team)?

$0	$50	$100	$150	$200	$250	$300

The assignments during the first week—did we push too fast, or was it a good push?

Waste of time/pushed too fast	Neutral	Helped jumpstart our robot

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

What suggestions do you have for the first week assignments?

The checkpoint 2 at the end of the first week—did we push too fast, or was it a good push?

Waste of time/pushed too fast	Neutral	Helped jumpstart our robot

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

The checkpoint 3 at the middle of the second week—did we push too fast, or was it a good push?

Waste of time/pushed too fast	Neutral	Helped jumpstart our robot

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Zero Mock Contest

Too early in IAP	Just Right	Too late in IAP

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

First Mock Contest

Too early in IAP	Just Right	Too late in IAP

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Second (Last) Mock Contest

Too early in IAP	Just Right	Too late in IAP

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Should the mock contests be more like the final contest? To what extent?

How many mock competitions in 26-100 should there be?

0	1	2	3	4

Daily Lab Schedule

What time should we begin staffing each day?

9A	10A	11A	12P	1P	2P	3P

What time should lab end? (be realistic, we can’t staff 24-7)

5P	6P	7P	8P	9P	10P	11P	12P	1A	2A

Number of staff members in lab at any given time

Not enough- concentrate your hours more	Just Right	Too many- spread your hours out

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Any other comments on lab staffing?

How many hours per week did you spend working on MASLab?

First	Second	Third	Fourth

Week:	Week:	Week:	Week:

Team-assigned staff mentors

Didn’t like the idea/didn’t help	Neutral	Good idea!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Lectures

Quantity

Too many lectures	Just Right	Too few lectures

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Quality (not including guest lectures)

Useless	Neutral	Very Helpful

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Lectures, continued

Theory vs. Application

Too much theory	Just Right	Too much application

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Guest Lecturers

Not Interesting	Neutral	Very Interesting

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Which lectures or lecture topics did you find useful/not useful? Interesting? Why?

Did you attempt mapping? Why or why not? Did you feel we taught you the concepts well enough?

What topics should be added?

What topics should be removed?

Other Educational Topics

Was the image tutorial useful?

Didn’t like the idea/didn’t help	Neutral	Good idea!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Was the odometry tutorial useful?

Didn’t like the idea/didn’t help	Neutral	Good idea!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Are there any other tutorials you recommend that we hold?

Overall

Did you enjoy MASLAB?

No, sorry.	Neutral	You bet!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Rate the difficulty (not necessarily time commitment, but how hard it made you think)

Nothing new to think about	A pleasing brain tingle	Overload! Agggh!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

How annoyed are you that you can't keep the Eden?

I couldn't care less	No biggie	Really bummed

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

How many frames per second did you get with your image processing?

List all the staff members whose names you know. No cheating!

How polished/streamlined did the course feel? Or did it feel like the staff was improvising the whole time?

Very rough	Neutral	Very polished

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Would you recommend MASLab to your friends?

Uh, No.	Eh.	Woot! MASLAb!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Do you think there should be prerequisites? Which ones?

What is the #1 thing that MASLab staff did right?

What is the #1 thing that MASLab staff could improve?

What is the ideal team size (in people)?

1	2	3	4	5

Freshmen and students with no declared majors only:

BEFORE you took Maslab, how likely were you to declare course 6?

Not Likely	Completely Undecided	Course 6, rah rah!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Now, having taken Maslab, how likely are you to declare course 6?

Not Likely	Completely Undecided	Course 6, rah rah!

1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Any other comments?

Anything else come to mind? There are thousands of questions we didn’t ask. Now’s your chance!

Thanks for your comments. We really do consider all the advice very carefully!

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MASLab Survey

Kenneth C. Barr

2004-01-31T10:54:00