CISC 498
Information Technology Project

School of Computing

Proposed Projects 2021-2022

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This page lists potential projects proposed by customers from across the university and Kingston community. This year we have many anxious customers who can use your help! You may choose to pursue one of these projects, or find a customer and project of your own, possibly related to clubs or organizations you are involved with..

Projects from past years developed the Queen's Community Service Learning web portal, project management and secure reporting system, the Queen's squash court booking system, a particle size analysis system for Geology, an artifact archival and secure access system for Classics, and many other systems. Ideally your project should create a software system or product that can serve the customer for many years to come.

A good project will normally involve a human interface (such as a web portal), a persistent database, user roles, secure access isssues, and multiple technologies for you to learn about. But it can also be a challenging computational system or data management problem - it's up to you.

Some example past project descriptions from the last year are available here. Those projects are not available this year (if not listed below).

Projects
Each group must claim a different project inform the course coordinator as soon as possible. Before claiming a project, you can contact the corresponding customer of the project to better understand the software system needs.

1. Website and Application Create Customizable e-Storybooks(Taken)

Customer: Jessica Dassanayake, Co-Founder and CTO, BinoBooks

BinoBooks creates customizable e-storybooks that helps parents explain complex topics to their children with ease while making all children feel represented in their readings. BinoBooks was created during the SpreadInnovation Challenge in 2020 as part of the Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre and won the first place prize at DDQIC’s summer pitch competition. BinoBooks is looking to automate its existing processes for creating customizable e-storybooks that integrate customer input into the text and images.

A customer should be able to go on a BinoBooks website, browse for a book they would like to purchase, fill in a customization form (details like name, pronouns, skin tone, hairstyle, hair color), pay for the product, and have an e-book sent to their email. It would be ideal for the customer to view a preview of the customization of the characters and/or book before purchasing. The text in the book will be customized to include details about the child, like name and pronouns. The characters are customized based on the user input about skin tone, hair color, hair style, etc. The illustrator has designed the book's characters using layers that can be manipulated to match the customer's request.

This project involves the development of a e-commerce website that integrates a form for user input and a payment platform. The website should have a well-thought out UI and UX in order to make it as easy as possible for a potential customer to customize a book, while communicating the BinoBook's brand. Experience or passion for web development would be an asset here. Additional software development is required to automate the customization of the book and send the finished e-storybook to the user. A secure database and data security considerations are also needed to store order information.

2. Experimental Game Design, Analytics and Support

Customer: Anya Hageman, Department of Economics, Queen’s University

Do impatient people take more risks? Are they less likely to buy insurance? And how does behaviour change once insurance is purchased? You will provide a custom computer game and also software which leads users through a survey and the computer game while analyzing and recording users’ inputs. The computer game should offer a choice of speeds plus optional insurance packages. Users’ survey responses and game data will be stored securely in a simple database. The software will keep track of a user’s completion rate, completion times, style of game play, and current and cumulative game scores; it will also design an insurance offer based on previous scores, record whether the insurance offer was taken, and if so, adjust the game scoring accordingly. The software must also determine the payment awarded to each user on the basis of time spent, task completion, and game scores. If time permits, developers may analyze the data collected in the pilot study with machine learning.

3. Real-time Soundscape Mapper For Kingston

Customer: Alexander Braun, Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering (cross-appointed to Physics), Queen’s University

Sound, noise, and vibrations all represent acoustic waves which propagate both through the ground, infrastructure, and the air, and eventually reach the human ear. The negative impacts of noise on human well-being are well studied, but only little has been done to develop mitigation strategies. These require first the observation of noise, its quantification, and the dissemination of the data. This project aims at developing a real-time noise mapping tool for Kingston (or any other location). The Soundscape mapper will allow to upload common sound data from cell phones or other audio recording devices and visualize it through heat maps of the soundscape over different time periods. The data will also be recorded in a database for further analysis of hot spots and frequency analysis. Eventually, this could be released as a citizen-science app.
Hence, we would need.

The following can be provided to the project team: Sound propagation experience, mapping tools (open source mapping code), and analysis tools, e.g. wavelet analysis

4. Web-based Real-time Data Explorer

Customer: Dr. Christopher Omelon and Madeline Myers, Department of Geography and Planning, Queen's University

Researchers are actively seeking ways to engage the community with their scientific findings. One approach is to make data accessible and easy to understand in order to better engage the community. Specifically, the Ice Climate, and Environment Lab (ICELab) at Queen’s manages a network of 4 high-Arctic weather stations and we would like to make our data accessible to people with a range of scientific backgrounds. The weather stations send near-real-time climate data to Queen’s via a satellite network, so the project objective would be to create a website or module for a website hosted by Queen's that would:

5. A platform for the analysis of DNA-transcription factor binding sites

Customer: Shuxiang Li Research Associate, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Queen’s University

Supervisor: Anna Panchenko Professor, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine; Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences; School of Computing, Queen's University

This project is to design a web server for analyzing the binding sites between double-stranded DNA and transcription factors. A protocol based on the command line (Linux) has been proposed by Computational Biology and Biophysics Lab at Queen's University. The goal is to optimize the protocol and run it as a graphical user interface. The web interface should be able to allow users to search and analyze the DNA-transcription factor binding sites from a user-provided PDB ID (the structure identifier used in the Protein Data Bank) or a PDB-formatted file. It is required that the results can be directly visualized or downloaded. This project will help researchers to understand the molecular details of how the transcription factors recognize DNA and provide important clues for therapeutic targeting of oncogenic transcription factors.

6. Teaching Assistant Management System(Taken)

Customer: Alex Wright and Loanne Meldrum, Department of Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy, Queen's University

We would like to produce a more capable system for assigning graduate students to their TA positions, and managing those positions. The system would need to accept, in a user-friendly way, input about the TAs (number of hours each TA should work, course preferences, etc) and the courses (the number of TA hours required and the time blocks for those hours, the course instructor, etc). The system would then guide the assignment of the TA positions, checking to ensure that each course and TA receive the correct number of hours, avoiding schedule conflicts, etc. The system would then generate TA assignment summaries for review and be capable of emailing the TAs and course instructors to notify them of the assignments. The system would also draft, present for review, and then send to the course instructors TA agreement templates and TA funding schedules. Ideally, the system will be created in such a way that future expansions of its capabilities are relatively straightforward.

7. Client Portal for Bespoke Skin MD

Customer: Neal Michelutti and Kimberley Meathrel, Department of Biology, Queen's University

About Bespoke Skin MD:
We provide a unique blend of public and private skin health services to Kingston and the surrounding region. Our mission is to remove barriers to access to skin health experts and improve client's health through customized treatments plans offered in an accessible, approachable, and efficient format.

Project Features:
Client-Facing: The client-facing portal will allow users to see the summary of their treatment recommendations, receive notifications of upcoming book appointments, be prompted to book an appointment if they are due and be able to book directly from the portal. They will be prompted to repurchase recommended skin care products when due and reorder directly from the platform Clients will also receive notification of special offers/promotions and inhouse events. They will also have the ability to refer a friend, collect credit for those referrals and monitor their credit amount. Each client will receive a satisfaction survey following visits.
Business-Facing: The business will have to ability to track referrals, track churn rates and net promoter score.

8. Animal Archive(Taken)

Customer: Claudia Hirtenfelder, PhD Candidate, Geography and Planning, Queens University; Host and Founder of The Animal Turn Podcast.

I would like to create 'an animal archive' where people who are working on animal studies and geography are able to upload content related to the animals. For this initial part of the project, I would like to focus on a ‘bovine archive’: So let’s say I have done research on dairy cows in Kingston between 1838 and 1938 and someone else has done work on bulls in Spain from 1910-1920. I would like a one stop spot where people can upload: 1) a synopsis of their research, 2) details about them as researchers and how folks can get in touch, and 3) some media - possibly some images or things like sound files (folks only insert what they are comfortable uploading). It is also, however, a tool that animal studies scholars can search on. So, if I am interested in bulls, I would search ‘bull’ and only the second of these two aforementioned projects would pop up. Ideally people who upload their material are also able to tag it so that overtime (as more content is uploaded) certain themes related to bovine history and geography emerge, can be searched, and possibly further analysed.

9. Real-time full-stack development for a healthcare web application

Customer: Anne Liu, Co-Founder of WaiveTheWait

WaiveTheWait is a health tech startup based out of Queen's that is focused on solving the ever present issue of wait times and bettering the patient experience. After winning second place in the Queen's Innovation Centre's Summer Pitch Competition - Kingston's largest pitch competition, we are currently working on new features that will help reduce day-of appointment anxieties while also optimizing clinical operations.

After successfully piloting our system, we are now looking into creating a scalable solution that can effectively work across many sites.

Please join us if you are interested in working on a tangible service that will help real patients and medical institutions for years to come. We are looking for students who want to build an ever-growing platform that helps make healthcare comfortable - for everyone.

There are three sides to the platform, you can get the opportunity to work with any of the following technologies

10. Cycling Simulation Tool for Cycling Education & Training

Customer: Neal Scott, President, Cycle Kingston Inc. and Hailey Tabbert, Program Coordinator, Cycle Kingston Inc.

Cycle Kingston is seeking a computer-based interactive cycling skills simulation tool to be used for assessment and training of individuals ages 10 years and older. This tool would be used in an online environment accessible to children and adults and focused on safe cycling practices about both on-road and off-road bicycling scenarios. The software would recreate real-world situations found in urban and rural settings whereby the individual is presented with action options that lead to natural and logical potential consequences. The program/tool needs to include the following key elements:

This project is part of an ongoing initiative to promote and encourage cycling in Kingston through education and public outreach. Cycle Kingston is a registered Canadian non-profit organization. Our mission is to provide safe cycling education and skills training in Kingston, Ontario so citizens may gain competence and confidence as cyclists and become empowered to choose cycling as a means of transportation and/or leisure. We work with many community partners and organizations to offer a broad variety of safe cycling initiatives including classroom presentations, summer camps, festivals and more. However, the COVID-19 pandemic made us aware of the growing interest in and need for online learning and course delivery. This project would assist us to provide a robust, well-rounded, and inclusive online learning experience to those unable to attend an in-person session, for any reason.

11. Applying a Game-Based Learning Approach to Develop Competences in the Clinical Use of Lithium

Customer: Fabiano A. Gomes, Assistant Professor, Kingston Health Sciences Centre, Department of Psychiatry, Queen's University School of Medicine

This project is a multidisciplinary work developed by an international team bringing together some of the most prominent scientists and educators in the field as well as clinicians, trainees and advocacy representatives in an innovative educational initiative to develop competences in the clinical use of lithium to treat patients with mood disorders. Our goal is to have a patient-centered perspective in the project and to design a teaching activity that embraces the values of equity, diversity and inclusivity.

Our idea is to develop a platform (web-based or app) that learners could navigate and have access to teaching materials (written documents, powerpoint presentations, brief video lectures) and also play different games such as Jeopardy, Family Feud and role-playing games. We imagined a graphic interface like a world map where you could explore different continents and would have different materials/games. The player would accumulate points and could be ranked against each other. This is our initial idea but our team is eager to work with the developers to create the best experience for learners, especially regarding the gaming experience. We will be available to interact with the students whenever needed in order to provide information and feedback.

We believe that this project would be suitable for the software project development course, CISC 498. We were funded by 2 competitive grants from the Faculty of Health Sciences and SEAMO. Our idea was deemed relevant and scientifically sounded and the project was already approved by Queen’s IRB. We will develop the educational content based on the experiences of our team but more important from the needs of trainees and patients who will be surveyed in the next few months. We will also assess their learning while they progress in the game. We will be able to provide funding for needs that may not be available in the Course (e.g. graphic designs, video editing, etc). The software will be usednot only to teach students and trainees at Queen’s but could be implemented in other Universities and even to be available for everyone interested.
More information can be found here

12. User friendly GUI to Upload and Verify data sent to Digital Repository

Customer: Reşat Fuat Çam, Postdoctoral Researcher, Vulnerable Media Lab (VML) and Susan Lord, Director, VML

This Mac-based software will upload digital assets captured in the Vulnerable Media Lab from film, video, and audio sources in a nightly batch to Queen’s Centre for Advanced Computing’s trusted Digital Repository and perform data verification in the form of a hash check or checksum. Data totals for upload could be up to 20-24 TB nightly. The GUI should function as a simple drag-and-drop or add files dialogue with background ftp or other network linkage is predefined and generally hidden from the user.

This project will require aligning the needs of several entities: starting with the Technical Supervisor of the Vulnerable Lab (Ryan Randall) for ease of use and robustness of verification notification feedback before local storage is cleared. The Data verification will need to satisfy the standards the Digital and Private Records Archivist (Jeremy Heil) and the Queen’s Library stakeholders (Heather Home & Sandra Morden) for future retrieval and management through a version of Islandora (7 or Claw) along system requirements of the data management stakeholders at the Centre for Advanced Computing (Chris MacPhee).

The robustness of the overall system architecture and verification process is absolutely critical. The digital assets generated from the Vulnerable Media Lab are archival masters and in some cases may the last viewable/listenable versions.

13. User friendly GUI to add or edit metadata added to a video or audio file using a pre-defined ontology

Customer: Reşat Fuat Çam, Postdoctoral Researcher, Vulnerable Media Lab (VML) and Susan Lord, Director, VML

This Mac-base software will allow for the editing or addition of metadata to video container file (such as .mov, or .dpx) or audio file (such as .wav, or .aiff, or .flac). The text source should be able to be imported from a text file or provide a custom interface that provides it own predefined ontology or variation on Dublin Core.<

This project will require aligning the needs of several entities: starting with the Technical Supervisor of the Vulnerable Lab (Ryan Randall) for ease of use and integration in the asset acquisition workflow and will need to satisfy the standards the Digital and Private Records Archivist (Jeremy Heil) and the Queen’s Library stakeholders (Heather Home & Sandra Morden).

The ideal expansion of the is project would be to integrate the metadata of each audio and video file with the open link data framework to be deployed in a version of Islandora (7 or Claw) in conjunction with the stakeholders in the Archive/Counter Archive collaboration, Queen’s library, and Agile Humanities.

14. Web Based Application for Designing Community Little Forests(Taken)

Customer: Joyce Hostyn, Little Forests Kingston & Adjunct Professor, Master of Energy & Resources Leadership and Maureen Buchanan, Indigenous Food Sovereignty Garden; Joanne Whitfield, Limestone District School Board

Little Forests Kingston is a grassroots group taking a local response to the crises of deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change. We make it easy for communities to take direct climate action and build local climate resilience by helping them identify neighbourhoods lacking tree cover, analyze site requirements, and choose an appropriate Indigneous Little Forest species list with the end goal of planting and caring for a Little Forest in their neighbourhoods.

We need a web based application that makes it easy for Kingston and area community groups to:

With the growing interest in Little Forests we anticipate that community groups across Ontario and Canada will be interested in adopting the solution. As such, it must be designed with scalability, usability, extensibility, and flexibility in mind.

We would work with the student group to provide an overview of our existing approach, provide all the relevant domain knowledge about our methods and the relevant data, and to iterate on designs that accomplish the goals listed above. Our team includes people with a good understanding of both business process design issues, software usability and interface design approaches and issues, computer science expertise and we would be delighted to work with enthusiastic students interested in helping us make a real change in the face of the climate crisis.

15. A tool for rapid emergency response on geological field excursions

Customer: Elisabeth Steel, Assistant Professor, Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen’s University

The Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering (GSGE) is looking for a software system to help manage and organize safety data prior to and during field trips. This will include information related to emergency contacts, allergies, and relevant medical conditions for participants in field courses. The ideal software would allow students and participants to easily enter their information and provide secure storage. Field trip leaders and departmental leadership would have access to this information in the case of an emergency. Additionally, this software would allow leadership to quickly send a text message or an email to emergency contacts. This project is necessary to allow for more efficient and useful management of safety data and will increase our ability to react quickly in the case of an emergency.

16. Online Hiring Portal for International Teaching Jobs

Customer: Nadya Allen, International Manager, Faculty of Education, Queen's University

The Teachers' Overseas Placement Service (TOPS) is a not-for-profit service where Queen’s students (future teachers) and local teachers can search for teaching jobs with international schools around the world and international school partners can search for high quality teaching candidates. We are looking to develop a database and portal for this service.

The portal must:

17. Open Source Web Platform for Multi-scale Circular Economy Analysis

Customer: George C DiCenzo, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Queen’s University

We propose developing a reusable open-source web platform for storing, visualizing, and analyzing multi-scale data for circular economies. A circular economy is one that eliminates waste, circulates resources, and regenerates nature. Developing one requires acquiring and processing data from systems across multiple time/length scales.

The circular plastic economy provides an immediate use case. The Queen's-led Open Plastic consortium was formed to tackle plastic waste by bringing together 21 investigators across six universities, and 8 partners including companies and municipalities. The consortium will deliver microbial genomes, enzyme sequences and structures, and process models from microreactors to large-scale processes. All data and models are placed in the public domain using an open science framework. Data, analyses, and models are to be communicated via an effective web platform to the scientific community and the public.

The following web pages will be available. Content will be added over the next 4 years. The following features are desired:

18. Performing and Experiencing Live Plays in Virtual Reality

Customer: Michael Wheeler, Assistant Professor, Dan School of Drama and Music, Queen’s University

Supervisor: Nicholas Graham, Professor, School of Computing, Queen's University

Our vision is that plays can be performed through virtual reality. The actors’ positions and movements are tracked in real-time, and used to manipulate avatars that appear in a virtual world. Audience members use a virtual reality headset (like the Oculus Quest) to experience the play.

While the basics of this approach are currently being developed in Film and Media, there is much experimentation to be done to find out how to make VR theatre a compelling and enjoyable experience. A traditional approach might involve audience members positioned around a stage where the play takes place. A more ambitious approach could place the theatre-goer right in the action. It is unclear to what extent the audience should be allowed to freely roam the set, versus being positioned in real-time by a director.

In this project, students will work with a professional programmer to develop interesting forms of audience interaction to adapt the award-winning play You Should Have Stayed Home into a VR live performance. Work will include exploration of the audience's viewpoint into the play, their ability to move around, and the role of a director to manage the audience in real-time.

19. App Development to assist guests driving through African Lion Safari

Customer: Erin Sills, Marketing Manager, African Lion Safari

African Lion Safari is a drive through wildlife park dedicated to the conservation of declining wildlife species. It is home to over 1,000 exotic birds and animals that roam freely throughout large drive through Game Reserves. Visitors may take their own vehicle through our 9km of Safari Trail to see a pride of majestic lions, a herd of graceful giraffe, a crash of rhino and many more animals from around the world!

We are looking for an application to be developed that, at the very least, allows our visitors to access our Audio Tour that will educate them about the animals they see, and our conservation efforts for focal species, while they are driving through the Game Reserves. It is our hope that we would be able to include additional information to guide our guests around the park, such as a park map for the walking trails and educational presentations (non-interactive to start with – but potential to use geo-targeting) as well as developing educational information for families, school groups and visitors. A welcome addition would be the option to do scavenger hunts or educational activities for children while they are exploring the walking area of the park.

Ideally, this application could be accessed without data, as the park does not have public wi-fi accessible and many of our guests do not have phone data. The application’s design elements would need to follow African Lion Safari’s branding standards.

20. Carbon Footprint Tracker Application with Rewards--QICSI-funded start-up netzero

Customer: Warren Mabee, Professor, Geography and Planning, Queen’s University

The Renewable Energy Development and Implementation (REDI) lab is trying to develop a tool that would allow tracking of individual carbon footprints through day-to-day activities. This app (netzero) is already well underway, but requires a reliable, safe, and secure means of tracking carbon through a variety of uses and/or owners. What our group envisions is a ledger that will use a life cycle assessment approach to track flows of carbon, from source to ultimate disposal. The ledger must be reliable, scalable, and must ensure secure transactions to address any issues associated with double- or triple-counting carbon.