The draw-bot: a project for teaching software engineering

The authors present a course project which was successfully used to teach software design principles to third year computer engineering students. The goal of the project is to program a robot to trace a shortest path through a maze. The students, organized in teams of five, have to follow the classical steps of software development and prepare interface, design and testing documents. Having a project that requires controlling a device to complete a clear task generates enthusiasm in the students and helps them to understand the principles taught in the course.