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In this chapter, we share observations from a multiyear design-based research project exploring how to teach developmentally appropriate coding concepts and skills in kindergarten. We focus on coding toys that fit within a genre we call “grid- agent” robot coding toys. These are robots that are specifically for early childhood, commercially available, screen-free, tangible, moveable and programmable. Grid- agent robot toys invite children to explore mathematics through precise movements across a grid space. 

Additive manufacturing (AM) presents unique challenges to the nondestructive testing community, not least in that it requires inspection of parts with complex forms that are not possible using subtractive manufacturing. The drive to use AM for parts where design approaches include damage tolerance and retirement-for-cause with high quality and where safety criticality imposes new QA/QC requirements is growing. This article reviews the challenges faced to enable reliable inspection and characterization in metal powderbased AM processes, including issues due to geometric and microstructural features of interest, the limitation on existing and emerging NDT techniques, and remaining technology gaps. The article looks at inspection from powder to finished part, but focuses primarily on monitoring and characterization during the build. In-process, quantitative characterization and monitoring is anticipated to be transformational in advancing adoption of metal AM parts, including offering the potential for inprocess repair or early part rejection during part fabrication. 

The ability of Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes to ensure delivery of high quality metal-based components is somewhat limited by insufficient inspection capabilities. The inspection of AM parts presents particular challenges due to the design flexibility that the fabrication method affords. The nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods employed need to be selected based on the material properties, type of possible defects, and geometry of the parts. Electromagnetic method, in particular Eddy Current (EC), is proposed for the inspections. This evaluation of EC inspection considers surface and near-surface defects in a stainless steel (SS) 17 4 PH additively manufactured sample and a SS 17 4 PH annealed plates manufactured traditionally (reference sample). The surfaces of the samples were polished using 1 micron polishing Alumina grit to achieve a mirror like surface finish. 1.02 mm (0.04”), 0.508 mm (0.02”) and 0.203 mm (0.008”) deep Electronic Discharge Machining (EDM) notches were created on the polished surface of the samples. Lift off and defect responses for both additive and reference samples were obtained using a VMEC-1 commercial instrument and a 500 kHz absolute probe. The inspection results as well as conductivity assessments for the AM sample in terms of the impedance plane signature were compared to response of similar features in the reference sample. Direct measurement of electromagnetic properties of the AM samples is required for precise inspection of the parts. Results show that quantitative comparison of the AM and traditional materials help for the development of EC technology for inspection of additively manufactured metal parts.