Software Capstone, Spring 2005-Spring 2006: The Content Management System Project (WebCAT)
A team of seven students worked under the supervision of Professor Dave Blair to develop a content management system for creating and managing the content of websites. The team decided to name the system, WebCAT, which is short for Web Content Administration Tool. WebCAT allowed any organization or individual to create and manage their website without any web development skills. The project's primary customer was ETSU's Emerging Technology Center.
Design studio, Spring 2004-Spring 2005: The Aeronautical XML data Exchange
Participants: Joshua Banks, David Caldwell, Vinod Chandupatla, Kellie Culp, Mac Cunningham,Charles Gahari, Kiran Manchikant, Matt Morrell, Matthew Trent, Venkata Yelamanchili, Smitha Chennu, Mitchell Griffith, David Hulse, Bobby Whitten (student manager)
Building on an earlier project for the ICAO, this group focused on the development of XML documents that could contain the information, and also contain embedded features to ensure the validity of the data. There were two phases of deliverables, the first was a model based directly on the existing paper documents to be used as a first phase in a migration path. The second phase was a more data centric mode to be used later when more of the information was available electronically. In addition to these models simple user interfaces for the creation and editing of the documents were created. This work has been accepted by the ICAO and is being used by them in conjunction with a group of national authorities and international organizations to build a fully functioning electronic exchange mechanism.
Software Capstone, Spring 2003-Spring 2004: Resource Allocation and Tracking System, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (CCS).
The ORNL Resource Allocation and Tracking System (RATS) was developed by a team of four students under the direction of Dr. Phil Pfeiffer. The system's development was funded by a grant of $130,000 from ORNL CCS, which paid for four RAships and summer internships for the RATS team members.
The RATS system aggregates system usage data from two supercomputing usage databases: CVS, an open-source relational database in use on Cray platforms, and LoadLeveler, a hierarchical database for IBM platforms. The RATS architecture isolates the front-end data sources form the back-end database using a C++ code that periodically polls the CVS and LoadLeveler databases; translates the systems' data into a set of RATS virtual attributes; and audits the values, using a set of user-configurable Python scripts. The system is currently use by CCS, where two former members of the RATS team, Bobby Whitten and Mitch Griffith, are currently employed.
Software Project Management/Software Design, Spring 2002: Prototype for Speech Disorders Treatment Application.
In Spring 2002, Dr. Phil Pfeiffer's and Dr. Neil Thomas's graduates class in software project management and software design worked together to produce a prototype for an application for treating speech disorders in young children.
This prototype showed how a software package could be used to help realize and manage a new protocol for speech therapy developed by Dr. Lynn Williams of ETSU's Speech Pathology Department. Dr. Williams's "multiple oppositions" protocol presents patients with a screenful of images that represent words with similar sounds (e.g., "mop, moss, moth"), in order to help them perceive the difference between these readily confused sounds. Dr. Williams later used the students' prototype as part of a succesful SBIR grant proposal for developing a fully realized version of this application.
Design studio, Spring 2001-Spring 2002: The Aeronautical Communication Transfer Protocol
Participants: Alan Browder, Terrance Hatfield, Vibhor Kataria, Kenneth Pierson, Heather Rhoton, Ying Wang
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is the UN agency responsible for setting the standard format for and exchanging information on air navigation rules, routes and procedures between the nations of the world. This aeronautical information is currently exchanged among the ICAO's 187 contracting using a paper-based format. Each contracting state publishes an AIP and then updates the AIP using AIP Amendments, AIP Supplements, and NOTAMs. The goal of this project was to design an electronic form of the AIP, and an infrastructure for propagating updates to the AIP. The result of this would be that all users of AIPs would always have access to up-to-date versions of those AIPs. To do this first an analysis of two competing standards was undertaken (both were found to need improvement) and subsequent to that a prototype system showing how push and pull technology could be used to efficiently route this information world wide without swamping a network was created and tested.
