Program

Announcing the Winners of the 2012 CMD-IT Undergraduate Student Competition

We are proud to announce our winners of the 2012 CMD-IT Introductory CS Course Projects: It’s All About Inclusion. CMD-IT’s “It’s All About Inclusion” Undergraduate Student Competition challenges underrepresented students to create exciting and engaging introductory CS course project descriptions. The projects can focus on any topic as long as it includes computing and the scope of the project is two weeks. The projects do not have to be implemented. Students are able to compete as a team (up to two students) or individually. First place winners receive a $3,000 prize and second place winners receive a $1,500 prize. Prizes were generously funded by The Alliance for Access to Computing Careers (AccessComputing) and CMD-IT. This year, the CMD-IT Student Competition winners were awarded their prizes and presented their projects at the 2013 SIGCSE Conference poster session in Denver, Colorado.

First Place, $3,000 prize: Catherine Ji and Kyu Chang

Project: Sound to Color/Virbation System

This year’s first place prize was awarded to University of Southern California students Kyu Chang and Catherine Ji. Kyu is a sophomore studying Computer Science and Business Administration. Catherine is a freshman majoring in Computer Engineering and Computing Science.

Their project, “Sound to Color/Vibration System” combines a visual display translating sound to color and a physical response through vibration patterns based on the sound’s volume designed to enrich the daily experiences of the deaf, allowing them to feel the emotions, tensions, and mood captured in the sounds present in everyday life that they otherwise would not experience, therefore giving them a glimpse into the semantic value of these unheard sounds. Their project description allows for multiple applications including allowing hearing impaired persons to experience music and also as an early warming system in cars.

Second Place, $1,500 prize: Antwane Mason and Cedric Strickland

Project: Underrepresented Minority Advancement Site (URMAS)

Notre Dame seniors Antwane Mason and Cedric Strickland were awarded second place in the CMD-IT Student Competition. Antwane is a double major in Computer Science and Japanese. Cedric is also a Computer Science major.

Cedric and Antwane’s project, “Underrepresented Minority Advancement Site (URMAS),” is designed to empower underrepresented high school and college students to share information and collectively reach their goals as students via a website that allows students to share information regarding the college application process, financial aid, pursuing U.S. citizenship and obtaining scholarships. Their project creates infrastructure that allows underrepresented minority students to uplift one another. URMAS would allow students to pool their knowledge and resources to succeed both individually and collectively.