This idea in my previous post about a score keeping application for the local high school math team is one I would be excited to work on. There are a few contacts I have that could be the stakeholders for this project.
Coaches (Internal/Operational/Executive): The math team coaches, some of which were my high school math teachers, would be the main internal stakeholders. They would be using this application and the information it provides.
Students (External/Operational): The students will be benefiting from this application externally. They will not input the scores, but still be able to see the results and know what areas to study for the next meet.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Stakeholders:Housing Helper
In one of my previous posts, I talked about an idea of creating a helpful tool for those looking for a place to stay. Now I will go over some potential stakeholders for this project.
Customers (External/Operational): The main users of this application would be the people wanting to sell or buy a house or apartment. Mainly the people of Hawaii, unless this project gets larger and branches out to the mainland.
Realtors (Internal/Executive/Operational): For the internal stakeholders I do not have any sure contacts setup. The internal stakeholders would definitely be realtors or a company involved with housing. There is someone in one of my classes that I found out is a realtor so he could be a potential stakeholder.
Stakeholders: Programming Challenges Assistant
Following up on my previous post about a programming challenges assistant website. It's now time to talk about the stakeholders for this project.
Professor (Internal/Executive/Operational): Dr. Curt Powley, being the head coach of the programming team and professor teaching the programming challenges class, would definitely be the main internal, executive stakeholder for this project. He would probably interact with the system internally and sort of use the information given by the system at an executive level.
HPU Students (External/Operational): The HPU students would be the main consumers for this application. Their input about desired features would be the most important in the design of this system. Senior students could also be internal operational stakeholders if they are allowed to interact with the backend and add new features.
Professor (Internal/Executive/Operational): Dr. Curt Powley, being the head coach of the programming team and professor teaching the programming challenges class, would definitely be the main internal, executive stakeholder for this project. He would probably interact with the system internally and sort of use the information given by the system at an executive level.
HPU Students (External/Operational): The HPU students would be the main consumers for this application. Their input about desired features would be the most important in the design of this system. Senior students could also be internal operational stakeholders if they are allowed to interact with the backend and add new features.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Brainstorming: Math Team Scorekeeper
Problem
The local high school math team competition has a new scoring system that is more troublesome than the math problems themselves. Out of up to ten competitors per school they must select the top four that score the highest over three events. The top scores are obviously changing after every event and it is hard to keep track of how each school is doing. Many have tried to input all the data into an excel sheet and compute the top four scorers, but this has been complicated and troublesome to do. They could use an easy to use program that allows scores to be input for each competitor after each event and even save data from past events.
System Specifications
The local high school math team competition has a new scoring system that is more troublesome than the math problems themselves. Out of up to ten competitors per school they must select the top four that score the highest over three events. The top scores are obviously changing after every event and it is hard to keep track of how each school is doing. Many have tried to input all the data into an excel sheet and compute the top four scorers, but this has been complicated and troublesome to do. They could use an easy to use program that allows scores to be input for each competitor after each event and even save data from past events.
System Specifications
- User friendly GUI allowing competitors scores to be input for each school
- Efficient sorting algorithm that keeps track of the top four scores and lists them in order
- Ability to save and display data from past events for future strategizing
- Saves time and trouble for math teachers and other volunteers
- Allows a school to get an edge on the competition with extra data
- Cool way to support my old high school
Brainstorming: Housing Helper
Problem
Housing is very limited and expensive here in Hawaii. It is even harder for people to find a place to live when they have specific needs like pets or children. People may spend months looking through ads and not be able to find anything suitable for a reasonable price. Greedy realtors may trick them into buying or selling their house when they aren't too sure. A website that allows people to list houses or apartments for sale and let buyers look up housing with a certain price range and detailed specifications could be of good use.
System Specifications
Benefits
Housing is very limited and expensive here in Hawaii. It is even harder for people to find a place to live when they have specific needs like pets or children. People may spend months looking through ads and not be able to find anything suitable for a reasonable price. Greedy realtors may trick them into buying or selling their house when they aren't too sure. A website that allows people to list houses or apartments for sale and let buyers look up housing with a certain price range and detailed specifications could be of good use.
System Specifications
- User friendly GUI to allow users to post and look up houses with detailed specifications
- Required screenshots from sellers of the house and surroundings
- Embedded chat system to allow buyers and sellers to communicate easily
Benefits
- Save people time and money
- More satisfied people with adequate housing
Brainstorming: Programming Challenges Assistant
Problem
It is difficult for new students to get familiar with the Programming Challenges (CSCI 3106) class at HPU and prepare for the upcoming competition. There are not many good sources of information easily available for students to really get started in solving problems. They are forced to rely on the guidance of the professor and former competitors. The veteran competitors eventually graduate and the wisdom they have accumulated is lost. Newcomers are left on their own and must recreate all of the algorithms that their upperclassmen may have already figured out. They do not have a good system for figuring out what problems to practice or how to even test their code for a good solution.
System Specifications
It is difficult for new students to get familiar with the Programming Challenges (CSCI 3106) class at HPU and prepare for the upcoming competition. There are not many good sources of information easily available for students to really get started in solving problems. They are forced to rely on the guidance of the professor and former competitors. The veteran competitors eventually graduate and the wisdom they have accumulated is lost. Newcomers are left on their own and must recreate all of the algorithms that their upperclassmen may have already figured out. They do not have a good system for figuring out what problems to practice or how to even test their code for a good solution.
System Specifications
- A database of all past contest problems with sample solutions and hints for each problem
- A friendly interface for submitting source code and testing for correct solution
- Problems must be sorted into difficulty levels and categories
- Friendly interface for students to keep track of problems they have solved and what areas they should work
- A global scoreboard to see who has solved the most problems for fun and bragging rights
- Automatic practice contest creator that selects problems of various difficulty that you haven't solved yet
- Great way to get more people involved in programming challenges
- Easy to use tool to help new students learn and for veterans to practice more
- Stronger programming team for HPU
- Less work required for professor and upperclassmen
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Best Programming Language for Web Development
Web development is something I wish to get familiar with. There is a high demand for websites by various companies that want to get their names out on the web. It would also be very easy to show a job interviewer websites I have created in order to show what I can do. There are a few web projects that I have in mind, but I'm not sure where to start. First off what programming language should I use?
A couple of my professors have suggested that I use Ruby for web development. However, it seems PHP is the most popular language for websites as of now with over 81% of websites (source). Ruby, Python, and JavaScript make up less than 1% of all websites. Ruby and PHP were both created around the same time, so why is PHP so dominant in web development? Currently, I do not know much about Ruby or PHP, but I will be learning some Ruby and maybe I can see for myself which language I prefer.
It seems these guys have a preference towards Ruby:
A couple of my professors have suggested that I use Ruby for web development. However, it seems PHP is the most popular language for websites as of now with over 81% of websites (source). Ruby, Python, and JavaScript make up less than 1% of all websites. Ruby and PHP were both created around the same time, so why is PHP so dominant in web development? Currently, I do not know much about Ruby or PHP, but I will be learning some Ruby and maybe I can see for myself which language I prefer.
It seems these guys have a preference towards Ruby:
Friday, September 6, 2013
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