Oregon State University Capstone Blog

So we are a little over a week away from the midpoint in the class. I feel like my partner and I have put in way over the ten hours a week and have made good progress but we are still far from having a full-fledged mobile app with all the features the sponsor requested. At this point, we are focusing on just finishing up the UI and building somewhat of a prototype that can possibly be built on by students in the next quarter. Initially, we planned to have our database set up this week but I don’t think we can realistically implement the entire back end with the four weeks we have left in the course. The other assignments are also a lot more time-consuming than I expected. Especially for only two people, writing up the project plan/archives on top of the individual assignments is pretty labor-intensive. Looking at the course schedule, we need to allot time to complete the progress reports, discussions, poster, demo video, and final project archive which will take away from time actually spent developing.

My partner and I are using discord for our main communication tool and it’s been going well. We are able to voice/video call, share screens, and send messages/screenshots to each other. Pull requests and code reviews have been useful to us as well and I’m glad to be getting more practice with Git. We haven’t needed to use any other type of project management tool but I could see how it would be necessary with a bigger team. Our sponsor also said they would send us some screen mockups two weeks ago but have not sent them to us yet. So we are doing the best with the info we have and are attempting to contact them. Overall, I feel like I am learning a lot and hopefully the mobile app development class I’m taking next quarter will be a breeze now.

Since my previous post, I changed my project choices and am now working on one the industry projects. The instructor had sent out an email highlighting the project and I thought that this would be a great opportunity to actually tackle a real-world problem. I reasoned that I could always learn technologies on my own but this was the first opportunity in this degree program to actually communicate with external stakeholders and gain experience in the software development process.

I ended up choosing the industry project on creating an emergency response mobile app for the fire department in the Dominican Republic. I am working with one other partner and we have been collaborating with a volunteer firefighter in the department to define the project requirements. Our sponsor is planning on using this app on Android tablets that will be in every fire truck. One major factor we considered when designing the app was that the targeted users have limited experience with technology. The current process is all manual and hand-written so it will be a big change for the department to switch over to digital. The users will also be busy responding to emergencies so it is important that the app is very user-friendly and can be navigated quickly. We will be using Google’s Map SDK for Android for the map features and Google’s Firebase for the backend. We chose these technologies because they are no cost at our usage level and have plenty of documentation.

Overall, the design process will happen throughout the quarter as this is a new project for our sponsor and they are still figuring out what the needs of the app are. With any design choices, it’s important that we remember our user base and ensure that they can effectively use the app.

Hey everyone!  I can’t believe I am almost complete with my B.S. degree in Computer Science.  I took my first computer science class at a community college in 2019 and had to drop out because I could not balance it with my full-time work schedule ( I was working as an air traffic controller at the time).  I tried a couple more times after that but ended up giving up due to scheduling conflicts.  When COVID happened, all the classes moved online and I was luckily able to complete a couple basic programming classes and discrete math.  At that point, I knew I really enjoyed CS and that is what led me to enrolling in OSU.  This is such a great program because it is designed for people who work full-time so you can complete the degree requirements at your own pace and never have to worry about class times or schedules.  I took mostly 1 class a quarter up till this point and will be graduating this August. I have also landed an summer internship as well as a full-time SWE position that starts in the Fall.  I’m very grateful for these opportunities and I look forward to finishing my degree on a strong note with a project I would be proud of showcasing.  I feel that for students or people with limited professional experience, projects are especially important since they give you something to talk about in the interviews and show what you are interested in.

Coming into this capstone class, I thought that we would have to come up with a project that we would work on throughout the quarter.  I was surprised when I saw the large list of projects we could choose from with the requirements already defined.  I actually like that we are given these project ideas because the scope is already set but you can still be as creative as you want with it.  I chose the animal adoption app as my first choice because it seemed like it was a project I could just jump straight into and it seems like a great idea to find more animals permanent homes.  It sounds like an advanced version of our CS340 Databases project.  It requires additional functions like admin accounts, email notifications, etc.  My second choice was the cloud-based stock market trading project.  I will also be taking cloud development this quarter so I thought it would be a good way to apply the knowledge I was learning in a hands-on way.  I am also interested in investing and that project stood out from the rest.

I did not form a team and just filled out the survey so I am curious what project I will be assigned.  I think it will be a good experience either way since the projects cover a wide range of technologies and topics.  I could be pushed out of my comfort zone working with something I haven’t seen before but I think that would be good to grow as a developer.