Be a pioneer in smart technology and game design with our exciting new Interactive Computing Technologies (ICT) concentration for Computer Science majors!

With the emergence of revolutionary new technologies like motion sensing, image tracking, and touch-sensitive displays, computers are now able to detect and respond to human input in ways that were once unimaginable, and technology-based industries need people who can envision and develop new applications and new possibilities. Think of the fervor (not to mention industry growth and evolution) surrounding the iPhone and the Nintendo Wii. Think of the excitement of highly interactive games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero – and think of the myriad employment opportunities in global and multimedia computing applications, which include gaming/entertainment, security, education and more.

Through hands-on programming and experimentation, the new ICT concentration exposes you to emerging technologies, ensuring that you will have the skills and experience to make valuable contributions to this and related growing fields within computer science.

Along with the courses essential for studying Computer Science in depth, those concentrating in ICT also take:

VC  105  - Introduction to Computer Graphics
CSC 155 – Programming for Games and Interactive Technologies
CSC 335 – Mobile Application Development
CSC 401 – Web Programming II – Interactive Web Applications

I work for Gorton’s Seafood which is a frozen Seafood company located in Gloucester Massachusetts. Gorton’s produces prepared frozen seafood which gets distributed throughout the US and Canada. The company employs about 400 people and there are about 200 people in the Main Office building I work in. As a medium size company I have the opportunity to work with many different people but within my actual department there are about 15 people.

What do you do there?
My position is a Business Systems Developer within the IT Department here at Gortons which means I am responsible for developing applications for the different areas of the business. My work also includes maintaining our databases along with programmatically writing reports based on our data for the end business user. I work closely with my team to maintain our internal Sharepoint website that we use to collaborate between all of our departments. I work to find ways to integrate the new technologies, such as mobile and website development into the everyday business environment.

Recently I redesigned a website for one of the smaller companies we are associated with. I took it out of its 90’s design and gave it an overhaul. I saw the project through from the initial design stage to Programming, Deployment and now into the Maintenance stage.

So your experience in Computer Science at Endicott helped you land this job?
My internship experience helped me learn about the type of company I was interested in working for ultimately. The Internship prep classes helped me prepare for Interviewing and how to present myself to my prospective employers. My Senior Thesis which I spent a lot of time on was a great talking point and allowed me to have a real example of something I had done in my field.

My degree required classes helped me immensely as I have such a dynamic job that uses many different skills that I learned in school. From Programming, Web Development, Databases, Networking, Graphical Design (Photoshop) and general knowledge in the area of Computer Science. I worked on learning ASP .net for a new web application we developed for internal use and I was also able to use my C# Programming as well to integrate in with that project.

Since I was hired on initially as Full Time I immediately felt included in my team as a valued member that they were interested in teaching the ins-outs of the company. During my Internship time at my job the assignments allowed me to reflect on what I was doing and dialog with other students and faculty about my work. It helped me set up a good base for my future at my company as I was able to put everything in perspective and learn about my new position in a positive way. (I’m referring to Journaling)

Is there anything else you’d want a potential Endicott Computer Science major to know?
I think that Endicott did a good job of giving me the core skills in different areas of the Computer Science Field. I realize that in my field the learning process is continual but I think that with a strong core or base of skills it makes it easier to pick up other languages or delve further into other areas. For example I only had the basic Database class at Endicott but that served as the groundwork for my learning to use the databases here at Gorton’s on a daily basis. I think that my class prepared me well for learning more advanced aspects of Databases. I went to college to study Computer Science because I knew that was the field I wanted to work in. I would say the best part of my degree is that I use it every day at my work and I don’t think everybody can say that.

Graphics students at Endicott design gorgeous iPad and mobile applications, but they don’t run. Computer Science majors build real working apps, but they lack design qualities like visual hierarchy and color sensitivity.  While it seems fairly obvious for students from these two majors to work together, most schools don’t formally promote this collaboration.  So, we (Michael Ocean, Professor of Computer Science and Sandy Farrier, Chair of Visual Communications) designed and ran such a course in Spring 2012 to allow Computer Science majors (Developers) to work directly with Visual Communications students (Designers).

CSC377 “Software Engineering Practicum” had two goals:  1) let students from both departments work together to develop one larger-scale project throughout the semester, and 2) have that inter-departmental experience reflect the real-world collaboration students will encounter if they enter the software or web design/development fields.

The results were impressive. Developers and Designers learned each others’ jargon and thought processes. All students saw the opportunities and pitfalls inherent in such a group effort. Developers honed their skills while working on a shared codebase using concurrent versioning software; e.g., they learned how not to step on each other’s toes and blow away each others’ changes. Developers also learned that designs don’t just come from thin air, and that good ones require considerable thought, planning, and hard work.  For their part, Designers learned that even simple changes in layout, font choice, image size, etc. come with a lot of code “under the hood.”

What did they build?
An Endicott College “Lifestyle” application, called GullNest.  It provides access to practical information that the CS and GD students felt their fellow Endicott Students need.

The Process:
In the beginning, we did not have a fixed idea as to what the project would be. In an effort to insure student ownership and commitment, we let the class decide on the app to design and build.

After a week of deliberation, students agreed on an Endicott-specific app. Another week was dedicated to choosing the features the app should have, and who would work on what parts.  After a third week exploring design options and real-world examples, the Design students produced a look & feel that the class agreed upon. With this design template in hand, the different groups of developers could work on their content pieces somewhat independently while still aiming toward a consistent, branded look for the finished product. Classtime typically involved problem-solving and compromise between the two student groups in order to achieve mutually acceptable results – just like in the professions.

Under the hood:
The app was built on web technologies (HTML5, CSS3, JQuery, JQuery Mobile, PHP, MySQL) to present a User Interface that appears nativeto an  iPhone. Class discussions included the use of PhoneGap, which could let us bundle GullNest as a native app and sell it on the app store.  All of the web services were hosted on the Amazon Elastic Computing Cloude (EC-2) on servers generously provided by IBM’s Academic Initiative.

How did it go?
It was amazing. Students and faculty alike learned a lot. As teachers, we know how to make this class even better when run it again. We distributed a survey at the end of the semester, and the students’ responses tell the story.

What do you do there?
As a QA engineer at Sonus, my responsibilities range from providing black-box functional tests for product enhancements and platform stability, to automating all testing; allowing reliable, consistent, and instant execution.

So your experience in Computer Science at Endicott helped you land this job?
Endicott’s Computer Science program provided me with the tools and the ambition I needed to succeed. The program taught me how to continually acquire knowledge and gave me the ability to apply that knowledge towards real applications.  Instead of typical lecture based programs, the small, discussion style classes in the Computer Science department gave me real conversations that taught me how to discuss technical issues with colleagues. The computer science program provided the right tools for me.  It is flexible enough to cover new technologies and let me explore my personal interests in the field, but defined enough to pave the way for a career in Computer Science.

Did you always know this was the field for you?
No, I changed majors after my freshmen year. I wish CS was a major when I was freshman.

What do you do there?
I work in the Weld-Media branch (a child company of Marketing Drive). Here I serve as an interactive web developer. I have been able to work on many projects for various companies such as CVS, Dunkin’ Donuts, Dannon, Pernod, and Sonicare. I deal mostly with front end development with some work in back end code.

So your experience in Computer Science at Endicott helped you land this job?
Endicott’s internship program taught me how to work in a corporate work place and how to work in a team environment. I was also able to establish many references and relationships that helped me move forward and start my career.

Endicott’s computer science program helped me get the position I have now by teaching me the necessary computer languages and development processes that I now utilize every day. This ranges from my use of HTML, CSS, Javascript, C#, and SQL. I was also able to walk in and have the general knowledge of how a development cycle works; from concept to design to development to testing to production. I was able to step right in and grasp the process.

Is there anything else you’d want a potential Endicott Computer Science major to know?
I think it is excellent that the CS program is growing.  The skills I have acquired at Endicott have allowed me to step in the working world immediately and have an impact.  I felt I was truly ready to step in and be an asset to Marketing Drive, and I owe all of that to my education in the CS program.

“Traditional” Interactive White Boards are touch based.  This means the user needs to be at the front of the room, and touching the board.  Multi-touch versions can only track two users at a time and, at the end of the day, they are being used as fancy white boards.

For her Senior Thesis project, Kerri set out to utilize the Microsoft Kinect sensor to make a classroom technology that is far more Interactive.  “Microsoft’s Kinect isn’t just for games, and even Microsoft is now promoting the Kinect for other uses that even include Education.”  Kerri developed an application called KinecTeach for Elementary Education classrooms.

The Kinect enables gesture-based interfaces where no mouse or keyboard is required. Kerri’s solution uses Microsoft’s Kinect Sensor, connected to a Windows computer that runs her KinecTeach software.  The software can track a user’s skeletal joints, which her software uses to determine what the user wants to do. It is much more natural to point to the feature you want to use than to use a mouse pointer, we just don’t think about interacting with computers in this way.  KinecTeach can recognize the gestures of multiple users simultaneously, which means multiple students can interact with the teaching computer simultaneously.

Kerri has developed a few proof-of-concept educational games (one for grammar and another for spelling) along with a touch-less whiteboard.  Kerri describes the spelling game:

The spelling game allows the students to play a game that helps them learn to spell words.  In order to play the game, the student presses start and KinecTeach informs them what word to spell.  Letters drop from the top of the screen, and the student then has to touch any letters that help complete the given word until the word is completed.  Once the word is completed, the student has the option of returning to the home screen to choose another feature or to complete another word.

Kerri’s KinecTeach is a prototype for future Natural User Interface-based education applications. While Kerri has graduated, it is her hope that some future Computer Science major might continue her work and get it into the hands of some of the Elementary Education majors.

Mapping Indoor Spaces
Most people use GPS to navigate unfamiliar spaces, but it doesn’t work indoors since you can’t get a reliable lock on the satellites.  Even if you could, the location information isn’t precise enough to know exactly where you are.  As Scott puts it, “it wouldn’t be sure if I was in the Library, the Parking Lot, or the Lake.”

Scott’s Senior Thesis project is a custom built solution to provide maps and directions for mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, Android, etc.) indoors, when you can’t use GPS. His solution draws from the strengths and weaknesses from other approaches to solve mapping problems, indoors or outdoors.  The user is presented with a mobile friendly interface showing a map of where they are in a building, and an option get directions to a list of all of the rooms in that building (that list could just as easily be a list of Professors, classes, or anything else that is a placeholder for a room number).  Once a destination is selected, the software uses Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm to compute the shortest route from the current location to the destination.   That route is overlaid on top of a map of the building, to guide the user from their current location to their destination.  If you need to climb the stairs, there’s a button that you tap to get the next floor and your directions continue from there.

Scott’s approach uses a number of technologies from his prior coursework: JQuery Mobile for an iPad/Android tablet friendly User Interface (from Mobile Apps and Software Engineering), Dijkstra’s Shortest Path algorithm (from Discrete Math), and general web technology to make everything work (from Advanced Web). The secret to the location tracking is a very clever use of QR codes: Scott generated and printed QR codes and posted them in strategic locations throughout the building.  Each QR code corresponds to a location, so the app knows where you are by reading the data encoded in the QR code.

What’s next? Scott has graduated, but we will be deploying Scott’s Mapper to the new Science Building when it opens in Fall of 2013.