GAMUT: A Laboratory for Computer Science Instruction

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Brown University will purchase advanced, state-of-the-art workstations to populate a unique classroom laboratory for computer science instruction. This laboratory will use advanced software, now under development, to provide a consistent visual programming environment to undergraduates from their first, introductory programming course, through the most advanced software engineering course or independent study. This environment will significantly improve the teaching of computer science and will affect the whole undergraduate curriculum. The unique feature of the proposed environment is a set of integrated tools for program and data structure visualization. These tools will enable students to visualize concepts and the programs that embody them throughout their undergraduate experience. A simple, "read-only" version of the system BALSA, has been used at Brown successfully for four years and has already had a significant impact on their curriculum. The system envisioned, not only will provide more powerful visualization tools, including color and real-time animation of three- dimensional representations, but also will allow the student to interact with visualizations during the course of a lecture as well as during the implementation of the student's own programs.