On Weds. April 28, the Computer Science Department held a virtual showcase to show students’ advanced software design projects from one of their classes this semester. Sonoma State seniors in the CS 470 class got a chance to show off their projects that they have been working on for the entirety of the Spring semester.
The students worked in groups and were tasked with creating a software application that people could use and relate to. Dr. Anamary Leal, the professor of this course and host of the showcase, shared what the initial assignment was in a little more detail. “The core assignment was to research, design, develop and evaluate a software novel engineering project that met some human or societal need or opportunity,” she said. “This goal was designed so students have a project that anyone can relate to, from a recruiter, software engineer, CEO, or, really anyone. By having a human need, students learn the challenges and nuances of creating technology.”
Alondra Gradilla, one of the CS 470 students from the showcase, talked about her group’s project called Cinerama. “It’s designed to help people find recommendations for movies they have watched. If you have seen a movie and want something similar or the same genre, our website will give you recommendations based on your search,” she said. “There are options like Top Rated, Now Playing and Popular to show users a variety of films. Additionally, we have a foreign film option where you can find movies from different countries if you are looking to expand your movie knowledge.”
In terms of how they came up with the idea, Gradilla said, “Since COVID, there has been way more time on our hands and some of our group members started watching more films and thought it would be a good idea to create something that can ease the decision making when it comes to what to watch next. In addition, foreign films have so much to offer, so we also wanted to make it easy for people to venture out and try something brand new.”
The next group of CS students to present at the showcase created a website and app called Fruck. One of the members of the group, Liam Schroth, gave more information on what exactly their software does. “[Fruck’s] purpose is to be like DoorDash, but for food trucks, and without the delivery. It is mainly used to locate food trucks and sorts them by what you’re interested in,” he said. “We’re also planning a rating system down the line so you can see how others rank food trucks. You don’t need to sign in or anything, you can just go to the app or website and see all the trucks in your area.”
Schroth went on to say that he and his group received a lot of good feedback after their presentation on Wednesday. “I was really surprised at the amount of people that came in and critically thought about how they’d use our website,” he said. “They were asking detailed questions and were trying to contribute with features that they came up with, many of which had not crossed our minds before. We saw a lot of praise towards just the idea itself too.”
One last group that presented at the showcase was a website called Wardrobe Wizard. One member of the group, Julia Otten, shed some light on what exactly their website does. “Our web application is an online closet organizer that allows users to upload pictures of the clothing in their closet and then use the images to create outfits by using a collage-like canvas where they can view various articles of clothing together.”
Another member of the group, Diana Arce-Hernandez, said that they received a lot of good feedback regarding their website from other people at the showcase. “The Colloquium definitely provided us with some really good feedback – there were a lot of suggestions we received that we wouldn’t mind trying to implement even after the course is done.” she said. “Someone even suggested adding a feature for sorting the clothes by colors and I thought that was actually a really great idea, especially for users that like to color-code for work or other events.”
The showcase ended with all of the seniors getting feedback on their projects in the form of a survey and hopefully, a sense of accomplishment as they prepare for graduation.
