We present the Reflectance Field Map, a reliable real-time method for detecting shiny surfaces, like glass, metal, and mirrors, with lidar. The Reflectance Field Map combines the theory developed for Light Field Mapping, common in computer graphics, with occupancy grid mapping. Like early methods for sonar-based robot mapping, we show how the addition of angular viewpoint information to a standard 2D grid map enables robust mapping in the presence of specular reflections. However unlike previous approaches, our method works in dynamic environments. Additionally, unlike recent approaches for lidar-based mapping of specular surfaces, our approach is sensor-agnostic and has no reliance on either intensity or multi-return measurements. We demonstrate the ability of the Reflectance Field Map to accurately map a campus environment containing numerous pedestrians and significant plate glass, both straight and curved. The algorithm runs in real-time (75+Hz) on a single core of a standard desktop processor. An open source implementation of the algorithm is available at https://github.com/collinej/reflectance_field_map.

Massachusetts defined K-12 Digital Literacy/Computer Science (DLCS) standards in 2016 and developed a 5-12 teacher licensure process, expecting K-4 teachers to be capable of teaching to the standards under their elementary license. An NSF CSforAll planning grant led to the establishment of an NSF 4-year Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) of district and school administrators, teachers, university researchers, and external evaluators in 2018. The RPP focused on the 33 K-5 serving schools to engage all students in integrated CS/CT teaching and learning and to create a cadre of skilled and confident elementary classroom teachers ready to support their students in learning CS/CT concepts and practices. The pandemic exacerbated barriers and inequities across the district, which serves over 25,000 diverse students (9.7% white/non-Hispanic, 83.7% high needs). Having observed a lack of awareness and expertise among many K-5 teachers for implementing CS/CT content and practices and seeing barriers to equitable CS/CT teaching and learning, the RPP designed an iterative, teacher-led, co-design of curriculum supported by equity-focused and embedded professional learning. This experience report describes how we refined our strategies for curriculum development and diffusion, professional learning, and importantly, our commitment to addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion beyond just reaching all students. The RPP broadened its focus on understanding race and equity to empower students to understand how technology affects their identities and to equip them to critically participate in the creation and use of technology.

We describe a new algorithm for occupancy grid mapping using LIDAR in the presence of glass and other non-diffuse surfaces. This is a major problem for robot navigation in many indoor environments due to the prevalence of glass paned doors, windows, and even glass walls, as well as mirrors and polished metal surfaces. Current formulations of occupancy grid mapping make the assumption that objects in the environment are detectable from all angles. However, glass and other specular surfaces are invisible to LIDAR at most angles and so become washed out as “noise”. We modify the standard occupancy grid algorithm to allow for mapping objects that are only visible from certain view angles, by tracking the subset of angles from which objects are reliably visible. We show that these angles can be determined reliably with a single pass through the environment, and that the information can be used to map both diffuse and specular surfaces.

The provisioning of multimedia services with guaranteed Quality-of-Service (QoS) is currently an important research issue in computer engineering, especially in the networking and information management areas. In this paper, we concentrate on the QoS-based provisioning of discovery and delivery services of multimedia resources in the educational application domain. We present a generic model for QoS-aware information management systems, able to support guarantee of the QoS in search and delivery of information objects over a network infrastructure (such as the Internet or an inter-organizations network). The model identifies actors and components involved, and their role. The metadata models we analyse are specialized for the education domain. For this application domain, we also propose QoS extensions to standard metadata models for profiling users, information services and resources, capable of supporting learning resources discovery and personalized delivery with QoS guarantee.