Software Engineering
Presenter(s): Kyle Burack, Frank Entriken, Michelle Kutsanov, Corey McCrea
Advisor(s): Dr. Michael Fahy
Now that schools around the world are transitioning to online classes due to the COVID-19 outbreak, students and teachers find themselves needing to adapt to the use of online lectures. Given the uncertainty of everything going on we decided that what our team needed right now is a chance to give our minds a rest. We wanted to create something that would help to organize our schedules and get back on track in a way that would not seem overwhelming. We understand that many students could have extra stress from outside sources at this time and want to help minimize these added stresses in any way. From this idea, we are creating a program that will let students who use Canvas, an online tool for university courses and communication, be able to lay out all upcoming assignments for each class in an easy to understand manner. We hope that this will bring a sense of clarity and ease of access to a student’s schedule and will be a useful tool for them moving forward. We will be researching the Canvas API in order to use our knowledge of networking for polling the calendar database and give a standard output of a given student’s assignments for the next week.
Gamifying Hacking with the Power of Networking
Presenter(s): Nicholas Mirchandani, Lloyd Black, Alex Joseph, Logan Welsh
Advisor(s): Dr. Michael Fahy
Stereotypical Hacker – Mainframe Access Token is a project we’re developing as a team to unleash the immersive powers of networking to keep players engaged by playing with each other. We wanted to push ourselves to the limit and create something truly worthwhile in the form of a gamified hacking experience, while also learning skills required to incorporate various different ideas seamlessly into a final product. Not only does this project implement various networking protocols simultaneously to create an enjoyable game, but it also does so while allowing us to constructively teach players simple cybersecurity concepts, as they would seem from the point of view of an experienced stereotypical hacker. We believe that by introducing players to these concepts, they’ll take measures to secure their own data from real-world hackers, especially after seeing how easy things seem to the hacker. However, above all, our goal is to grant players an unforgettable experience to share with their friends that’ll show them what fun truly is. We believe that we’ll accomplish our goal, but the only way to find out is to try it for yourself when it’s finished.
Smarter Homes for Smarter Secondhand Smoke Habits
Presenter(s): Noah Estrada-Rand
Advisor(s): Dr. Vincent Berardi
Despite the numerous campaigns against cigarettes, other forms of smoking including vaping have continued to surge in popularity. This increase in usage brings with it increased exposure to secondhand smoke to those directly and indirectly exposed to the user. Though secondhand smoke is unfavorable to anyone, children are especially prone to resulting health implications. If the parents are the source of this smoke, this effect is amplified as the child is continually exposed to secondhand smoke. Our Alexa research and development directly addresses this problem by creating an adaptive and interactive smart home application that aims to shape household occupants’ smoking behaviors to create a healthier indoor environment for children. Leveraging tools across multiple programming languages and systems, the centerpiece of the intervention rests upon Amazon’s cloud infrastructure, integrating the internet of things to measure air particle levels in participants’ homes. Daily behavior modules are administered via an Amazon Alexa Echo to gauge user engagement, as well as their sentiment and motivation. Data from an in-home smart smoke air monitor is incorporated into the platform to shape dialogue, responses, and daily activities that adapt to the subjects’ performance. Alexa also offers feedback on daily performance, reviewing strategies to help the smoker make better decisions and smoke outside the home and as far away from the child as possible. By personalizing the approach, the intervention is meant to be salient to the user while effectively shaping and coaching behavior in a non-intrusive manner. While still in development, this work will hopefully expand to other areas of health behaviors assisting in not only recording data but also providing real-time feedback to users.