“5 Ways to Decide If Your Business Needs a Mobile App.” Business Daily News. N.p, 20 Jan. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://mashable.com/2014/01/20/business-mobile-app>.

“5 Ways to Decide If Your Business Needs a Mobile App” is an article published by Business Daily News. It is about how to determine if a business needs a mobile app in 5 ways. In the article, the interviewee Michael LaVista, CEO and founder of Caxy, gives 5 ways to help a company decide whether or not they meet the basic requirement to create a mobile app.

We think that this article is very important and relevant to our project because our group is deciding to make a mobile app for our school base on City Tech website. It is important because this article provides detail that helps us think more about the purpose of the app, our target audience, the limitation of resource, and the platform it might be running on. This article will help us plan on creating the app later on.

Brian, Matt. “Mobile Apps: A look at what makes a good app great.” The Next Web. N.p, 16 July. 2011. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2011/07/16/mobile-apps-a-look-at-what-makes-a-good-app-great/>.

“Mobile Apps: A look at what makes a good app great” is an article written by Matt Brian. This article is about what are the component that makes an app a great and popular mobile app. One of the major components to make a good app is “User Interface”, the author mentions that the UI can “instantly form an impression” as the user open an app at the moment. Matt Brian also said that a good looking app is more attractive than those are not. Another component is whether or not the app meets the needs of a user. Matt Brian argues that when users download an app, they tend to ask more from what the app already have. For example, more update with newer feature should be conducts every once a while. The author think that one of the major reason the Angry Bird became extremely popular is because the Rivio company added on more and more features when there is new update. The final component is market, Matt Brian mentioned how Rivio notice different OS platform users have different way of interacting with apps.

This article is relevant to our project is because we think that as we go along with our project, it will helps understand how to make a good looking app that can attract users and how to apply it. We also concerned about what our audience needs as we will conduct a survey to find out that question. The last concern is market which also most concerned. Since our audience will be both future and mainly current City Tech students, we will find out what feature they most use on City Tech website.

“Queens College Mobile.” App Store. N.p., n.d. Web.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/queens-college-mobile/id467428724?mt=8

Queens college apps is different from their school website. The apps content link to the main place in the college where students can locate information about the college. Links includes emergency, course and facebook. By looking at queens college apps we can have a general idea on how to build city tech college apps. We can improve from there website by adding links or remove links that should not be on the apps. The apps will help us to understand your audience more since we are going to target city tech student. Reading the comment in the comment section will give us an idea about things student like and dislike about the apps.

“Como App Maker – Make an App with Our Easy App Builder.” N.p. http://www.como.com

This website allow people to create an apps without paying for it and can see how a apps look before making their final decision. The website allow people to choice for a wide variety of audience to build their apps for.The website will help us design the outlook for our apps to see what eh aps will look like before deploying for sales. It give you step by step instruction on how to build apps  It will emulate a apps but not deploy so we can get a sense of where we are going with the apps.

“UTSA Professor Studies Cell Phone Habits of College Students in US and South Korea | Science Codex.” Science Codex. N.p., 4 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

http://www.sciencecodex.com/utsa_professor_studies_cell_phone_habits_of_college_students_in_us_and_south_korea-145150

“UTSA professor studies cell phone habits of college students in US and South Korea”. This is the study of smartphone habits of college students in the United States and South Korea. The two countries were selected due to the higher rate of smartphone users. Almost a year of online survey was conducted with more than 1,600 students from both countries of their smartphone use. Studies shown Americans uses their smartphone mainly for social events, while Korean users are more interested in entertainment and information gathering.

This shows the usage and the habit of smartphone use in America and Korea. Since our focus is City Tech, we will focus the college students in America. American Students use their phone mostly for social media, texting, and email. We can incorporate those feature into our application.

“4 Ways Your Smartphone Is Making You Dumber” Forbes. N.p., 10 Nov, 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.http://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2014/11/10/4-ways-your-smartphone-is-making-you-dumber/

“4 Ways Your Smartphone Is Making You Dumber” by Rob Asghar. The author lists four reasons why smartphone are making people dumber. The author states a study which shows 81% of college students leave their phone within reach when they sleep. Overuse of smartphone cause people to sleep less at night, thus lowering their IQ. People have less contact with others.

Even though this article contradict our purpose of smartphone use. It is still relevant to our application. Overuse of smartphone does impair some of our ability. With this in mind, we can add a message in our application to advise users to not overuse their device and live their lives socially.

“AIR Home.” AIR. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

This website provides information about all types of research that are conducted in the university. It stipulates that the research report presented is conducted on a semester basis and therefore all information is up to date. One of the most important data this website acquire is the City Tech data, which include surveys as well as  graduation and retention rates and a wide data overview where we can see on details where the school stand on. This website will help us to make our survey more efficient. Any improvement that can be done on the data should aim at improving the scope as the data is already up to date.

Allen, Grove. “See What It Takes To Get Into City Tech.” About Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

The article provides information on the student data collected between 2012 and 2013 which provide a summary of City Tech. It presents the transfer out rate as 40% with the first year retention rate being 77%. The data is collected from National center for educational statistics which makes available data related to education in the U.S. This website is important as it provides numerical details of all the information on transfers required. This information may help us to develop questions related to our transfer rate so we can analyze the main reason why the school is getting high transfer rate.

Brckalorenz, Allison, Robert M. Gonyea, and Angie Miller. Updating the National Survey of Student Engagement: Analyses of the NSSE 2.0 Pilots (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.

This research journal explains about goals and purposes of the NSSE update and the new pilot instruments used to assess student engagement in educational practices. It also explains the rationale behind the pilot instruments, the methods of analyzing the pilot instruments and the results of the pilot analyses. The pilot instruments improve certain properties of measurements and eliminate outdated content. Some of these include teaching practices, technology usage, diverse perspectives and learning strategies. The components that we deem is relevant for our project are the “engagement indicators” such as Experiences with Faculty, Diverse Interactions, High Impact Practices, Campus Environment, and Demographic Items. By doing more research on some of these “engagement indicators” it may well lead to graduation rates and transfer rates.

Koebler, Jason. “Community College Attendance Up, But Graduation Rates Remain Low.” US News. U.S.News & World Report, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

This article explains why students cannot graduate from 2 year colleges or transfer from 2 year colleges to a 4 year college and what is the problem for this dilemma. The article tells how students are enrolling in college but cannot end up finishing or even transferring out. For most of the last century, community colleges were designed to expand students’ access to higher education. But in recent years, they’ve been asked to put unemployed Americans back to work. According to the article, less than half of students who enter a community college graduate or transfer to a four-year college within six years. This is important for our group project because these statistics can be used as a resource for explaining our concept of why colleges have such low graduation rates.

Kuh, George D. The National Survey of Student Engagement: Conceptual Framework and Overview of Psychometric Properties (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.

The research journal breaks down the content of the NSSE (Nation Survey of Student Engagement) Project and Questionnaire which is designed to assess whether students are engaged in optimal educational practices.  The research also shows the outcome if students emphasize good educational practices which lead to focused faculty, staff, better curriculum and a better college experience. The journal also goes over the items of the survey, and discovers whether the items are relatively stable from one year to the next. The research journal is composed of multiple components that detail the framework and structure of the NSSE. It also provides tables, correlations and graphs to give a visual representation of its findings. By acknowledging the rationale behind certain items within the survey, we can better understand which items will pertain to our project.

Moldoff, David K. “Top 10 Reasons Why Students Transfer.” College Transfer. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

The website provides information as to why students might opt to transfer from one institution to another. It identifies 10 reasons why students transfer. A few mentioned are financial circumstances in search for lower paying schools, social circumstances that involve the type of people that a person relates with in the institution, and If the students switch their majors and the current school does not have that major, they are forced to transfer and a few more.  The website is important for this study as it provides the possible reasons why a student might want to transfer. Using the above reasons, the school can work to mitigate the possibility of a student transferring by providing suitable conditions and facilities.

Ritz, Glenda. “Graduation Rate Methodology and Definitions.” Indiana Department of Education. Glenda Ritz, Dec.-Jan. 2011. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

This article explains how the graduation rate is calculated. Graduation rates are the percentage of students who graduate from an educational institution. According to the article, the general formula for graduation rate is the number of students graduating divided by the number of students. Graduation rates are important because it shows how committed schools are to graduating their students. Schools with high graduation rates have fewer students who fail in school and more students earning a degree. The way it works is first the college determines the amount of students who are graduating. Then they determine who entered as freshmen, and then add students who transferred to the school plus subtract the students who transferred out. Finally they divide the number of students graduating by the number of students in the graduating class. This is important for our topic because it shows why the schools have such low graduation rates. We want to discover the major problem as to why these rates are so low.

“Top 10 Best Horror Games of All Time.” GND-Tech. N.p., 19 Oct. 2014. Web. 08 Nov. 2014. <http://www.gnd-tech.com/content/997-Top-10-Best-Horror-Games-of-All-Time>.

“Top 10 Best Horror Games of All Time” is an article published on GND-Tech.com. It’s a comprehensive list of 10 critically acclaimed horror games, providing detailed explanations for each showing why it deserves such praise. The website is a PC gaming related website, so the list is representative of PC gamers, which is currently the biggest platform for the horror genre.

We chose this source because our project involves making a short horror game, and we want to draw inspiration from the most popular and successful horror games. Our audience would be PC gamers, and GND-Tech is a PC gaming website. Unlike other, similar lists, this one provides a detailed analysis of the games (or links to other articles from the same site that provide a more detailed analysis). We looked at some of the games listed there for inspiration on our own game design. In fact, we’ve played every single one of those games giving us enough experience, and a more clear idea of what PC gamers enjoy. Our main inspiration, the game that is actually the foundation for our own, is ranked number one on that list. By reading that article we discovered that when it comes to horror games, making the player feel helpless and at times trapped are very useful techniques, and PC gamers enjoy interactive environments.

“Top 10 Scariest Moments in Video Game History.” GND-Tech. N.p., 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 Nov. 2014. <http://www.gnd-tech.com/content/972-Top-10-Scariest-Moments-in-Video-Game-History>.

“Top 10 Scariest Moments in Video Game History” is an article published on GND-Tech.com, a PC gaming and computer technology website. The article contains a comprehensive breakdown of what they consider the top 10 scariest moments in video game history are, including a detailed analysis of each entry complete with references to other games and also film, in order to give the reader a more clear idea on successful terror-inducing techniques. The article also has a video for each and every entry, to show exactly what’s so frightening.

This source proves valuable to us because we’re making a horror game, and we want to scare the player. This article tells us and shows us what is very effective in scaring gamers. The website’s audience is the PC gaming world, which is our audience as well, so it’s relevant to our project. Some of us have played every game they listed, so we have a clear idea of what is effective and what isn’t effective at delivering terror and shock to gamers. Therefore, we know what to look for and we know what to avoid. The article suggests that dynamic, unpredictable, and randomized events tend to be extremely scary to most people, so we’ll look to include some of that. It also sheds light on other kinds of techniques used: some of the games listed actually don’t put the player in extreme danger very often, yet these games are found to be some of the most terrorizing. There isn’t just one “right way”, and creativity is a must.

“Amnesia Manual Download – Amnesia: The Dark Descent Game.” Indie DB. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

One of our goals as a group is to do research on different types of manuals that are related to our project, which is building a horror-themed video game. One of the manuals that we’ve focused on is the one belonging to the critically acclaimed horror game “Amnesia: The Dark Descent”. The user’s manual for Amnesia provides an instruction guide for the user showing how the game should be played. In addition, it provides configuration guidelines for the graphics, sound, profile setting, and most importantly the basic key interactions for a user to refer to. The instruction manual for Amnesia also gives the user an overview on what the game will mostly be about and what the themes of the game will be like. Overall, the instruction manual for the game Amnesia: The Dark Descent provides a well detailed guide for the users who will be playing the game. Our group believes that by looking through clear and well detailed user’s manuals like the one for Amnesia: The Dark Descent, we’ll get a more clear idea on what should be put into a user’s manual for our own game.

“Penumbra Manual Download – Penumbra:” Web. 07 Nov. 2014.

For this source, our group decided to look at the user’s manual for the game “Penumbra”, an episodic PC exclusive horror game made by the same people who made “Amnesia: The Dark Descent”. The user’s manual for Penumbra consists of sufficient information on the requirements that a user needs to be able to play the game. The manual is straightforward and very clear to the users; it informs the users what computer specifications he/she should have so that there won’t be any complications or slowdowns when playing the game. The user’s manual then continues to talk about the installation process of the game and details the steps needed to be followed in order for the installation to succeed. Although the manual for Penumbra didn’t include so much on what the game is about, it does a great job in helping the user install the game and assisting on how the game is played. We found the instruction manual for Penumbra useful as a group because it gives us helpful information and ideas on how we should create an user’s manual for a horror game, much like our previous source. Combining the two manuals gives us a more clear picture on what we should include and exclude.

Molloy, Mark. “Man Discovers Secret ‘dungeon’ under New Apartment.” Metro Great Deal on the Rent Man Discovers Secret Dungeon after Moving into New apartment. oct, 10th 2013. Web.

In this article by Mark Molloy, he talks about how one day after moving into a new studio apartment, a man discovered a mysterious hatch in the floor leading into an underground dungeon. According to Molloy, instead of calling the police to inform them of his discovery, the new tenant called a friend over to help him investigate the creepy cellar. In this article the author provides a series of photographs of what the interior looks like, all of which taken by the tenant. The tenant reckons that it could be an old English monastery that dates back to the 19th century, but at some point in time it was converted into thirty apartments. The tenant states that it’s “a little scary living above it alone”, although he also says that the space would be great for a “home cinema or dungeon party.” Some of these photos show a stone bed and narrow corridors. Some people speculate that one of the photos may be showing an old furnace room.

The reason we chose this source is because it helps provide us with insight on what a real life 19th century European dungeon may look like. Our project consists of creating a horror game set in the 19th century, and our level design includes a dungeon. The pictures in this article help us design the corridors of our dungeon, and the positions of rooms we have in the dungeon.

“Separation – Pentonville – Victorian Crime and Punishment from E2BN.” N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.

This article talks about the most feared prison in 19th century London. The prison is called “Pentonville.” It was built in North London in 1842. Pentonville was built to host prisoners waiting for transportation. According to the author, the design of this prison was intended to keep prisoners isolated from each other. It consists of a central hall, with five radiating wings, in which all the wings were visible to the staff stationed in the center. The author states that “guards could not see into individual cells from their central position. The design was was more about prisoner isolation than prisoner surveillance.” This prison can hold up to 520 prisoners each with their own cell. These cells are built to prevent transmission of sounds. The author provides us with detailed information on the design of the prison. The prison cells are about 13 feet long, by 7 feet broad, and 9 feet high, and the partitions between cells were 18 inches thick. In addition, the lights were only admitted by a window filled with strong glass and crossed with iron bars. The author went on to talk about the bedding of this prison, which consists of only mattresses with a blanket, and hammocks.

Like source one, we chose this source because the description provided by the author about this 19th century European prison gives us a mental picture of what prisons during this time look like. Since the setting for our game is 19th century Europe, we thought it was a good example which we could use to help design our interior levels.

United State Department of Labor   http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/electrical-and-electronics-engineers.htm

This is the US government official portal, which consists of the legit information and statistics about the current job markets and outlooks of the recent researches about the particular job market. In our case, we have found here needed information and statistics about the Electrical and Electronics Engineer. The website provides numerous sections about the field, however we have focused on several specifics. Those are “Job Outlook” and “How to Become an Electrical or Electronics Engineer.” “Job Outlook” section tells the overall statistics, numbers of the Electrical Engineers and available jobs, as well as projection of how these numbers would change during period of years 2012-2022. “How to Become an Electrical or Electronics Engineer” section consists of the information about the education, important qualities, licenses and certifications, which are needed in order to succeed in the field of Electrical Engineering. This section is useful, because it helps to estimate the level of sophistication of our game, that would help interested children in the future years of study in the field. Overall, the source is useful as it gives us the depiction on the current state of the job market, as well as gives the purpose to our team for working on the project.

Thibodeau Patrick, “Electrical Engineering Employment Trending Down”, http://www.computerworld.com/article/2483786/it-careers/electrical-engineering-employment-trending-down.html, Julie 2013.

The article is an independent source, which has supporting information for our project. The author encloses information and statistics about the numbers of Electrical Engineers and number of available jobs. Which, according to the article, mainly state that there is shortage of the qualified workers to occupy all of the positions available of Electrical Engineering field. Moreover, the shortage is predicted to slightly increment in the next decade. At the same time, the need of qualified Electrical Engineers is projected to grow, due to the increase in the technological and research demands. Thibodeau bases his article on several businessmen and CEOs statements. He as well touches numerous issues related to the field, like unemployment and poor development of talented individuals. As our group is working on the project, which addresses the early education of children about the electrical engineering, the article support our efforts. We intend our product to have a beneficial effect on the situation, where young individual can find interest and develop talents in the field of Electrical Engineering.

Studying Engineering Before They Can Spell It

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/education/14engineering.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

this article fit well with our project because these students are actually being taught 10-15 hours a year about engineering. even though the students aren’t being taught the fundamentals of engineering,  they are learning about engineering. another reason why i liked this article because the student are being taught the step by step engineering process: design, build, test, evaluate. they have to have the thinking skills of an engineers to keep up with all the innovations that’s constantly coming into their world.  this is a good source because i didn’t realize that schools are teaching engineering so early and at such a young age to students. also students have been learning about engineering in our elementary school  without knowing so such as building Lego robots or designing a cushion for an egg drop. and the main idea for these experiments is to come away with the greater knowledge that goes beyond a problem which is what engineering is.  when engineering is being taught at this young of an age it reinforces math and science skills, promotes critical thinking and creativity, and teaches students not to be afraid of taking intellectual risks. with our project this is one of the main goals we want to give to students or a kid who wants to learn more about engineering on his own during summer or projects for himself.

Yes, You Can Teach Engineering in High School

http://www.todaysengineer.org/2010/Apr/Hoover-High.asp

At the collegiate level, schools and colleges of engineering have begun to realize that a change in their approach is required to increase student retention, with the introduction of more hands-on, project-based introductory courses surfacing as the most common curriculum change. in this article it predicts that student interest in engineering is on the rise and if so are these students prepared for an undergraduate engineering curriculum? this article states that students entering undergraduate engineering programs need to be prepared for the math, science and technological requirements that are inherent in an engineering education.  The problem is compounded by the fact that most such high-school programs lack a requisite math and science component. Students can graduate high school having participated in various competitions and taken one or more “engineering” courses while having completed only algebra II and general chemistry. in this article it explains how the hoover high school of engineering built their curriculum with the goal that their graduates would experience a seamless academic transition to engineering at the undergraduate level. the engineering academy is a four year program that includes three components, math, science, engineering. our plan with this project is to give the students understanding about what engineering entails.

“Laser Materials.” Laser Cutting, Engraving and Marking Equipment, Machines and Software. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.

Laser Materials is a website that provided details of all the elements and software that are in the market in order to cut different materials. Also show the dire rent set ups for each material that could be used with the specific laser machine. We chose this website in order to get more knowledge about this machines and all the set ups that we could be used in order to do the boards that latter on will be design. This web site show the pdf and the other elements that could be easy in other to test the different component unlike the others just only show the basic set ups and a just couple of materials. The material that we selecting for the projects have a different variations and thickness for the laser, the bed of the machine is also important for the material. This web show the material and the reaction that they have in the process of the cut. The reaction of some material as an example is the wood because the wood is cure with different chemistry that if we don’t know the wright wood we could fire the prototype and break even the machine.  The other important part of this web is that it names all the precaution that we should take with each material, to get the best result of the product.

David Silverman. “How to Learn Board Game Design and Development – Tuts+ Game Development Article.” Game Development Tuts+. n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013.

This source is very useful in all the elements and points that the article name it. All good and bad parts that the boards game can get, also the point that how we can test it and what we could do it in order to do the board game more amazing, for the all the kids that could play with the prototype that we will create. One of the most useful part of this article is that how each of the previous board’s games were created and how these have and impact at the time that kids play. Also the other part very important of this article is how the games were test and how the date was record it. In the other hand it show how and what type of question we should be as the player in order to get and create a better game and also the reaction and the level of difficulty that each player could have in other to past to the other level or in our case other connection of circuits.  Unlike in other articles this is more related to a digital games and not a hand on it, the development of this games have different step in order to design and make the most entertain it for everybody.

“How to Become an Electrical Engineer | Electrical Engineering Schools and Careers.” How to Become. Learn How to Become, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

The article, How to Become an Electrical Engineer by Learn How to Become, describes what it takes to become an electrical engineer. It goes into detail about everything from skills and expectations to degrees and certifications required. You can also see the average salary and how much people make in the different percentiles. It is also possible to search by school to see what schools offer the courses. This lets us see, by state, how each state handles the job training. This is an important source because reading it, I noticed how difficult it can be to get into electrical engineering. From reading this I learned what most electrical engineering focuses on. This helped me focus the rest of my research and how we can adapt the project. We now have a much better idea on how to tailor the question cards we will be providing.

Koerner, Brendan I. “Getting a Seat at the Board-Game Table.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 08 May 2004. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

“Getting a Seat at the Board-Game Table,” by Brendan Koerner is a New York Times about getting a seat at the board-game table and what sets the best-selling board-games apart from all the rest. It is a slightly older article but i think a lot of what is said still holds relevance. This article was really interesting to read because it shows what a board-game has to to do stand the test of time. It helped us rethink some of the base of our game and add a feature we were not planning to add. The article also goes into detail with some tips on how to improve games and get them on the market. With these tips the author also showed an example game to back up his tips and points. While we are not planning marketing out game it would be nice if it was used for a long time, so we can definitely use some of these tricks and tips.