App Lab logo

COMP 523: Software Engineering

2019 Projects

These are the projects for fall 2019. Some links may not work. You can also see the projects for fall 2020 and fall 2021.

Contents

Project web sites

(I gathered some fun facts about the project preferences that fed the project assignments.)

Mentor assignments

team mentor meeting time (45 mins.)
A Franzen Wednesdays 5pm
B Dinger Tuesdays 5:15pm
C Yackenovich Wednesdays 3:45pm
D Farmer Thursdays 6pm
G Lake Tuesdays 11am
H Mowery Thursdays 2pm
K Pollack Fridays 12pm
L Brown Thursdays 10:15am
M Vega Tuesdays 5:15pm
N Nguyen Thursdays 12:30pm
P Byzek Mondays 10am
Q Blair Fridays 1:30pm
R Wright Wednesdays 3pm
S Auger Fridays 1:30pm

Pitch recordings

Project details

Project titles and summaries are provided by clients. Clients sensitive to issues of intellectual property and confidential information will me marked like so: IP.

A. Health self-management training for adolescents/young adults with chronic conditions

Client: Maria Ferris, Director, Transition and Self-management Program, UNC School of Medicine

Summary:

The good news: Most adolescents and young adults (AYA) with chronic health conditions survive to adulthood!

The bad news: Most AYA are not prepared to self-manage their health focused services and they transition from pediatric to adult-focused health services and most parents do not know when to let go of managing their children’s health.

Preparing the AYA to learn health self-management is a difficult task in the very short medical appointments. Even if AYA/parents go home with paper handouts, the material may not be appealing and therefore is not consulted or is lost.

A patient and parent education curriculum on self-management (with educators input) has been created in print format, but data on how this material is used or consulted at home is not available.

Our challenge is how to move this curriculum to a more attractive, interactive platform - an app- that is customized to patient/parent level of literacy and cognition.

Case scenarios would be presented with video or perhaps as avatars, where the user would have to pick the correct answer. The user would then receive feedback based on their response.

An example of a case scenario from our curriculum based at the www.med.unc.edu/transition website would be a 14 year old with a chronic condition that has mobility impairment (i.e.a wheel chair) and is given the task of organizing his/her medications in a weekly planner…the patient and parent would then receive a question, such as “is this appropriate at this age?”

The answer is yes, if the patient has little or no cognitive impairment.

For those with cognitive impairment, a modified scenario would occur: For example having the patient get the pill box weekly container out of the drawer.

We would track baseline and follow up performance in our validated surveys for elf-management skills, to evaluate the outcome of our app (intervention).

We would welcome your input, ideas and suggestions on our proposal. Thank you for your consideration

PS: Our STARx program has been in existence for 13 years and we have been pioneers in most of our work. With over 70 publications and collaborators across the USA and a few other countries, we have been able to serve many patients/families.

Our students of all levels have published their work with us and we encourage those who join our lab to consider publishing their work.

Materials:

B. Software to Support Student Success

Client: Jane Fruehwirth, Associate Professor, Department of Economics

Summary:

Software designed to support student success, particularly in the process of writing an honors thesis, but potential is broader. Key aspects: timer to track writing/research, daily check-ins, ability to comment on check-ins and group chats

Materials:

C. Southern Legacies: The Descendants Project

Client: Glenn Hinson, Professor, Department of Anthropology

Summary:

The Descendants Project invites students to archivally explore the lives of lynching victims in N.C., and then to trace their descendants to the present day, using Census data, military records, cemetery listings, and more. Our goal is to locate–and then interview–descendants of these victims, with an eye to engaging them, and the communities in which the murders happened, in public memorialization projects. The difficulty is finding those descendants, and then keeping track of the crazily diverse set of archival sources that contribute to the creation of family trees. That’s why we’re seeing your help–to develop a program that allows students to create schematic family trees, and to link important documents (e.g., marriage or death certificates) to those trees, creating a deep visual field that will not only facilitate the shared search for descendants, but that we can also present to the descendant families. It’s already been our experience that many of these families have asked us to fill in family histories that have long since been lost in those families. Being able to present them with family trees, along with links to attached documents, would be a tiny step towards the kinds of reparations that ALL state institutions owe to communities that have been the historical victims of racial terror.

I’ll add that keeping track of archival searches–and ordering them in a way that’s visually accessible–has been a problem for the undergraduates engaged in this project. With your help, the entire project of searching for, and interviewing, descendants, and of building relationships with communities engaged in public memorialization efforts, will be greatly facilitated. Many thanks in advance for considering taking on this project!

Materials:

D. Tar Heel Reader PWA

Client: Gary Bishop, Professor, Department of Computer Science

Summary:

Tar Heel Reader is our extremely successful site with easy to read books for beginners of all ages. Over 1 million books are read each year all over the world.

I’m trying to imagine how it will continue to work into the future when I am not around to support it. It is currently based on WordPress and needs constant updates to stay ahead of the bad people out there.

One approach is to survive the way living things do, by multiplying. We could make it a static site with lots of small files and only relative links so that it could be simply hosted anywhere without configuration or the need for software updates. Then schools and groups could host their own copies.

I’ve got a rough prototype working but there is lots to do. I’d like to see it become a PWA (progressive web app) that works efficiently and offline (we have a start on that too). We need to test that it will actually work when based on the kind of web infrastructure used by schools. And what browsers can we support?

Could we enable users to easily add books to their local instance? Perhaps the books are only stored in their browser? Or on their Google Drive, or whatever. Can we enable them to share books with others?

This will involve lots of front-end web technology.

Materials:

G. SalonOn

Client: Morgan Auriel Kee, Hairstylist

Summary:

SalonOn will be a booking app that will allow salons to generate sales off of otherwise empty seats or booths. Clients will be able to sign up and be matched with stylists in the area who fit their hair needs. The two together are able to choose a salon location that works for them. I look forward to sharing more on my vision in class!

Materials:

H. Article Analyzer

Client: Todd Cherner, Program Director, School of Education

Summary: A tool to support students in grades 3-12 with text annotation without collecting email addresses.

Materials:

K. Simplified Music Notation

Client: Stuart Byrom (email: stuartbyrom@gmail.com)

Summary:

What if instead of new students of music spending huge amounts of time learning how to read music, they spent that time practicing playing music? What if that made learning to play an instrument fun and not drudgery? What if that meant more people were able to experience the joy of playing music? This is all possible with a new notation that implements a What You See Is What You Play (WYSIWYP) approach.

Materials:

L. EasyAccess

Client: Rocky Moon, founder/entrepreneur

Summary:

EasyAccess is an app and web-based platform the provides college-going resources to underrepresented students. High school counselors can track their students’ progress through the application and admission process. Post-secondary admissions counselors can use data generated through the platform to increase enrollment in students traditionally underrepresented at their institution. EasyAccess promotes equity in higher ed through:

  • Matching software that creates a Smart, Match, Reach school list unique to each students needs and academic profile
  • Connection to the online application and communication with the admissions staff of those schools
  • Digital admission essay editing
  • Integrated educational tips so students can learn about the process as the navigate each step
  • High school counselor back-end for tracking students’ progress through the process and communicating with post-secondary admissions staff
  • College admissions staff data collection and communication with high school counselors

With many college-access programs out there, EasyAccess distinguishes itself as being the first all-in-one college access app for students, an intuitive and effective tracking software for counselors, and a data-rich resource for post-secondary institutions to increase enrollment of underrepresented populations. EasyAccess hopes to close the educational opportunity gap and achieve equity in the college admission process.

Materials:

M. Undergraduate Research Application portal

Client: Boots Quimby, Associate Director, Office of Undergraduate Research

Summary:

To create an application portal for a variety of applications the Office for Undergraduate Research uses that will allow students to answer a set of questions, upload PDFs and add a faculty email to upload a letter of recommendation. The portal would then email the faculty to allow them to upload a letter of recommendation and then combine the PDFs uploaded by the student and the letter uploaded by the faculty. If possible, it would then be helpful if reviewers could be added to the portal that could review the materials.

Materials:

N. UX Analytics

Client: Max Leisten, CEO, Protopia

Summary:

Dashboard to understand how students and alumni engage with the Protopia platform.

Materials:

P. Sanity Scale

Client: Tosha Smith, CEO, Sanity Scale

Summary:

At Sanity Scale, we are developing a “saner way to weigh” by developing a digital body scale that does not display your weight. Instead, the scale silently pushes your data to an app on your smartphone. We then do all the data crunching and contextualizing for you, and present your data to you just once a week, so that you can get the real, full picture. In short, we help you track your weight without losing your mind.

Materials:

Q. A Universal Platform for Personalized, Diagnostic Monitoring via Electrochemical Sensors

Client: Jeffrey Dick, Professor, UNC Department of Chemistry, with Matthew Glasscott, Collin McKinney, and Matthew Verber

Summary:

Our goal is to ensure all people have access to highly sensitive measurements. Electrochemistry stands poised to provide a robust, inexpensive, and reliable framework for personalized medicine and diagnostics as well as environmental monitoring. Our call to action is meant to solicit aid in developing an application for iOS and Android devices that communicate with a state-of-the-art, inexpensive (<$50) diagnostic device developed by our laboratory.

Materials:

R. Help Automate Operations and Logistics for a Medical Cleaning Company

Client: Sir Robert Burbridge, Owner/Manager, OnSite Drapery Cleaning, LLC

Summary:

Work with an experienced software entrepreneur and project manager to build real-world experience in a low-stress opportunity.

OnSite Drapery Cleaning provides medical-grade cleaning of hard-to-clean items to area clinics and hospitals. We make sure the hospital curtains, lobbies, staff rooms, and more stay clean and safe for all visitors.

Our process is largely manual and has a variety of elements that can be automated to reduce errors, improve customer experience, and generally streamline business activity. The project lead is a serial entrepreneur who recently purchased the company and is working to modernize and improve every aspect of it to provide top-notch services to clients.

The list of available tasks is intentionally larger than we will be able to accomplish in the course of the program. This allows us to choose tasks based upon the skills and interests of the participating students. We will select work that helps students use their current knowledge and grow their skills. By having a number of available objectives, there’s a low-pressure environment designed to accommodate various student backgrounds and interests.

We will be working with git (through BitBucket) and creating software that connects to existing APIs (such as Google’s Business Suite… Gmail, Calendar, etc.), Wordpress plugins for our marketing site, automation tasks for production of client-facing documents, and more.

The project lead has direct experience with all the technologies involved, and is happy to work with students as much or as little as needed to ensure success.

Thanks!

Materials:

S. 2 Wheeled Traveler

Client: Jim Mahaney, Senior Research Associate, Department of Computer Science

Summary: Just like automobile drivers, vintage motorcyclists have come to rely on cell phones more and more while riding their motorcycles. Although there are a number of useful apps available for riders, changing between apps while riding is both difficult and dangerous. 2 Wheeled Traveler eliminates the need for multiple apps by combining features like speed, weather and where to find the nearest gas station onto a single screen that overlays your standard mapping program.

Materials: