FortiTo – Educational Technology

The FortiTo educational technology system is based on a series of hardware and software modules that are called Buzz Boards (TM), which have been designed to make creating educational assignments and student projects simple and interesting.

By assembling the Buzz-Boards in different ways (i.e. plugging them together in differing combinations) it is possible to create a variety of hardware application platforms that students can then program to learn differing skills and motivate them.

Buzz-Boards are based around the concept of pluggable modules which determine both the functionality and physical form. For example students can rapidly make products that range from internet phones through to mobile robots.

Full details of the FortiTo Buzz-Board range can be found in our paper Teaching Next Generation Computing Skills; The Challenge of Embedded Computing.

Buzz-Boards operate with the most popular embedded processors including ARM, AVR, Coldfire, 68K and PIC by means of plug-in mezzanine boards. Initially we are selling ARM processors but others will be released shortly. Over 30 separate modules are available and may be plugged together using our unique Buzz-Bus technology to create a huge variety of potential products and assignments. Buzz-Boards work with standard C and C++, the most common embedded-computing languages, and enables students and teachers to construct exciting and educational projects.  The current Buzz-Board system  uses the popular mbed ARM microcontroller module that has a well-established developer following and online development tools. The development software is based on a simple ‘drag & drop’ environment using web based development tools. A variety of software demos, and fully working assignment templates are provided (including software source code and the full text of assignments). The Processor Base Board is simply connected to a PC via a USB. Once connected it looks and behaves like a USB pen drive in which users drag and drop the compiled program onto the “pen drive” and then press the ‘reset’ button to execute it. It’s as simple as that! See http://mbed.org/ for more information on the development system.

FortiTo is an educational technology company formed by an international consortium of practicing university academics. It was formed as a result of our difficulties in finding appropriate commercial laboratory assignment solutions to meet our embedded-computing, pervasive computing and “Internet of Things”  teaching requirements. This convinced us that practicing academics are the best people to design educational solutions for students. As a company we also believe in the value of open-source shared tools and of enabling academics to have a stronger stake-holding in the companies that provide educational technology, in the belief that such companies would serve the interest of students and teachers better. Thus, FortiTo is formed as a ‘Faculty Cooperative’, where a significant proportion of the shareholding is reserved for academics.