REACH platform — Remote access to smart home facility based computer science laboratory

The purpose of the REACH (REmote ACcess to smart Home facility) platform is to allow students to learn about basic principles of computer science and software engineering practices, and gain hands-on experience through observable effects of the computing systems in a familiar setting (home). It utilizes virtualization to encourage group collaboration and grants anytime, anywhere access to the smart home facility. It incorporates dynamic binding capability that allows students to either use the sensors and actuators hardware they check out and install locally for development, or to conduct experiments in the smart home facility. Once the development is completed, the programs can be deployed remotely, and students can make observations through web cams strategically situated in the smart home facility and the logs of the system's operations and users' activities. The REACH platform is designed to support a large spectrum of computer science courses, from the equivalence of computer science lab 101, interdisciplinary projects, all the way to research projects in artificial intelligence, pervasive computing, and human computer interactions.