Computer science students seek projects

Submitted by Carla Browning
Phone: (907) 474-7778
12/14/04

If you have a scheduling, database or other software design challenge that needs solving, students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks may be able to help. Computer science students are soliciting software design projects for a spring semester class to gain real-world experience. Students have developed 51 successful projects in the past 14 years.

"Each project has presented teams with a new set of challenges," said Pete Knoke, associate professor of software engineering. "Our clients contribute to the process by evaluating student projects."

Last spring student teams developed three systems including a member tracking database for the Fairbanks Golf Association, a custom-designed rocket status display system based on telemetry data for the UAF Student Rocket Project and a database system upgrade to include pictures and a website for the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

Past projects, chosen based on feasibility and student interest, have been developed for many clients, including the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the Bureau of Land Management. Occasionally, projects reach beyond the immediate Fairbanks area. Students worked on a family medical history project for an Anchorage doctor and a project for an IBM division in Colorado.

Typical prices for commercial, custom software development projects like those done annually by UAF students can run as high as $40,000. The projects often require more than 650 hours of software development per team of five students.

The deadline for local government, public service and private organizations to submit proposals for consideration by students in the senior project and professional practice course is 5 p.m., Friday, Jan. 14. Request can come by e-mail to ffpjk@uaf.edu, or by regular mail to the UAF Department of Mathematical Sciences, P.O. Box 756660, Fairbanks, Alaska, 99775-1110.