I am doing research and teaching in the areas of K-12 Computing and STEM Education with an emphasis on the domains of educational robotics, wearables and embodied learning.
Previous Experience
2021-nowAdjunct Professor, Department of Product & Systems Design Engineering, Aegean University, Syros, Greece
2006-nowComputer Science Teacher, Greek Ministry of Education & Religious Affairs, Athens, Greece
Merkouris, A. (2019). Programming Embodied Interactions with a Remotely Controlled Educational Robot to Support the Development of Computational and Scientific Thinking. Ionian University, Department of Informatics. Corfu, Greece.
In recent years, researchers and educators have considered robotics as an inspiring educational tool to promote the comprehension of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics concepts as well as to foster computational thinking and creativity. Contemporary research has explored educational robotics, but it has not examined the development of computational and scientific thinking in the context of programming embodied interactions. In a typical educational robotics activity, children are asked to enliven the robots by creating the appropriate computer programs. The programmer has to think mainly about the goal of the robot and how the robot will interact with the environment. However, there is another important aspect that should also be taken into consideration, and this is if and how the user will physically interact with the robot. Additionally, with the rapid development of digital technologies, such as mobile devices, touchscreens and computer vision, a wide gamut of interfaces is provided to users. Children can interact with digital information more naturally and physically, using personal devices that are appealing to them. Putting forth the notion of “embodied interaction” we are moving away from the conventional keyboard and mouse input devices to touch, speech, hand and full-body interfaces. Recently, there has been a strong push to exploit these interfaces in science and computing education triggered by the views of embodied cognition researchers that physical interactions with the environment through sensorimotor modalities (touch, movement, speech, smell and vision) are essential factors in the construction of knowledge. In this work, we explored the synergy between embodied learning and educational robotics through a series of programming activities. Thus, the main purpose of this dissertation is to investigate whether programming human-robot interfaces and students’ embodied interactions with educational robots can affect the development of their computational and scientific thinking. Two studies were conducted within formal classroom environments. In the first study, we recruited thirty-six middle school students to participate in a six-session robotics curriculum in an attempt to expand their learning in computational thinking. Participants were asked to develop interfaces for the remote control of a robot using diverse interaction styles from low-level to high-level embodiment, such as touch, speech, hand and full-body gestures. We measured students’ perception of computing, examined their computational practices, and assessed the development of their computational thinking skills by analyzing the sophistication of the projects they created during a problem-solving task. We found that students who programmed combinations of low embodiment interfaces or interfaces with no embodiment produced more sophisticated projects and adopted more sophisticated computational practices compared to those who programmed full-body interfaces. These findings suggest that there might be a trade-off between the appeal and the cognitive benefit of rich embodied interaction with a remotely controlled robot. In the second study, we explored the effects of touch and gestural interaction with a tablet and a robot, in the context of a primary education physics course about the notion of friction. For this purpose, fifty-six students participated in a between-groups study that involved four computationally enhanced interventions which correspond to different input and output modalities, respectively: 1) touch-virtual, 2) touch-physical, 3) hand gesture-virtual, and 4) hand gesture-physical. We measured students’ friction knowledge and examined their views. We found that the physical conditions had greater learning impact concerning friction knowledge compared to the virtual way. Additionally, physical manipulation benefited those learners who had misconceptions or limited initial knowledge about friction. We also found that students who used the more familiar touchscreen interface demonstrated similar learning gains and reported higher usability compared to those using the hand-tilt interface. These findings suggest that user interface familiarity should be carefully balanced with user interface congruency, in order to establish accessibility to a scientific concept in a primary education context. Overall, the results of this dissertation suggest that embodiment within robotics can serve as an innovative approach to expand students’ learning in computational and scientific thinking. In this way, the established curriculum of programming an autonomous robot might be complemented with user interactions, as well as with hybrid modes that reflect the variety of human-robot interactions in research and practice. The findings of this dissertation might benefit teachers, assisting them in creating effective robotic interventions with an embodied learning perspective that blends the traditional autonomous robot movement with student enactment.
2014MSc in Ubiquitous Computing
Merkouris, A. (2014). Learning Programming through Robotic and Wearable Devices. Hellenic Open University, School of Science & Technology. Patra, Greece.
In this work, we explore the benefits of learning to code for ubiquitous computers, such as robots and wearable computers, in comparison to programming for the desktop computer. Thirty-six students participated in a within groups study that involved three types of target computer platform tangibility: 1) desktop with Scratch, 2) wearable with Arduino Lilypad, and 3) robotic with Lego Mindstorms
2003Diploma in Electrical & Computer Engineering
Merkouris, A. (2003). Simulation of Fast Fading Phenomenon. Democritus University of Thrace, Polytechnic School. Xanthi, Greece.
Το αντικείμενο της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι οι μεταβολές που υφίσταται το σήμα ενός κινητού καθώς αυτό κινείται σε ένα ασύρματο κινητό περιβάλλον. Οι μεταβολές αυτές ονομάζονται διαλείψεις και διακρίνονται σε διαλείψεις μεγάλης και μικρής κλίμακας ανάλογα με την απόσταση που διανύει το κινητό. Ειδικότερα θα επικεντρωθούμε στις διαλείψεις μικρής κλίμακας που οφείλονται στην πολύοδη διάδοση και αφού αναφερθούμε στις αιτίες και τη φύση του φαινόμενου θα γίνει προσπάθεια μελέτης του με τη βοήθεια προσομοιώσεων που θα πραγματοποιηθούν στο πρόγραμμα σχεδιασμού και προσομοίωσης ADS της HP-Eesof. Για την απεικόνιση των αποτελεσμάτων που προκύπτουν από τις προσομοιώσεις θα χρησιμοποιηθεί και το MATLAB.
Human Languages
Greek (Native speaker)
English (Excellent)
Talks
Merkouris, A. (2019). Educational Robotics & Programming Embodied Interactions. 11th Conference on Informatics in Education. University of Piraeus, Department of Informatics, Greece.
Merkouris, A. (2016). Using Robots & Wearables to Teach Programming. Usability and Accessibility Days. ACM Greek SIGCHI - National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
