Students enrolled in one section of Associate Professor Kendall Martin’s Computer Science II – Object Oriented Programing (CIS 111b) course showcased their work in Montgomery County Community College’s Parkhouse Hall atrium last week.
‘We’re calling the event Technology Transfer Day, primarily because we want students enrolled in CIS 111 [Computer Science I – Programming/Concept] to see the kinds of projects they can work on if they enroll in the next course,’ explained Martin. ‘In the intro class, students really learn the basics, but in the CIS 111b course, they get to apply that knowledge and work on collaborative projects like the ones showcased here.’
Among those projects was a Wiimote Smartboard, developed by students Chris Gorman, Harshil Patel and Andrew Weiss.
‘We’re using a Wii remote as an IR camera, which connects to the laptop with Bluetooth, and you can write on the [projected] board with an IR pen,’ shared Weiss. ‘This is great for classrooms. Essentially, you can buy everything needed outside of the laptop and projector for $35.’
One team developed a paint program that can sense multiple touch points for use on a children’s Smart Table, while another team worked on a gesture-based air piano that employs Leap Motion control.
Students Stephen Normile, Lawrence Jamil, Chris Calvano and Dan Wrubal wrote a Google Maps-based game that allows players to navigate around actual barriers in their location.
‘It’s based on a modified code from Space Invaders,’ said Jamil. ‘We’re working on making a sword weapon instead of lasers.’
Other students from the class partnered with MCCC’s Engineering program, writing code and developing a website for the program’s Quad Forge project.
‘The students actually found fixes for problems in the open source program that were folded back into the international version, which is very exciting’ shared Martin.
CIS 111 and 111b are required courses for many of MCCC’s STEM programs, including Computer Science, Computer Networking, Electronic Game and Simulation Design, Information Technology, Software Engineering and Web Design and Development, among others. To learn more, visit mc3.edu and click on Academics.