An App for School

For our final collaborative final project, we are proposing to make an application for Apple mobile device to navigate through the City Tech college website. Name of the application will be “NYCCT”. The application design will be simple, clean and fast. With a touch of a button, it will bring you to the frequently visited link within the school’s webpage. For more convenience, weather report around New York City College of Technology will be displayed. In addition, information in regard to college weather closing will be displayed on the main screen. If one cannot find what they are looking for in our application. There will be an option lead you to the City Tech official website.

This project is relevant to our course because completing this project will require plentiful amount of technical writing techniques. The creator will have to take notes on the process it takes to complete the final product. When the prototype is ready, testers will subject to using the application looking for bugs. We will be also including a simple description of what each function does and how to get to the specific information; this is similar to the “instruction and usability” project, there will be trial and error, where suggestions and problems will be logged. When the final project is complete, a full report will be provided.

The goal of this project is to provide a both future and current student who’s attending City Tech, with a better option to navigate City Tech information with ease and convenience.  It will be tremendously convenient and useful to people who wants to look for specific information, like the college academic calendar, majors, and admission, etc. Users will be able to touch on a button specifically made for that file, view it, and then leave the application. Stakeholders would include City Tech, their students, and potential students. The stakeholders would find the ease of access will allow users to quickly navigate the website for course requirements.

To complete this project, our first priority is to research on where the students usually go when they are in City Tech webpage. To do this, we will conduct a survey to find out what students hope to see on the app, and what they mostly looking for when surfing on City Tech website.  After the finding, we will need to create a prototype to see if everything is working accordingly. If so, we would include more features that may be of convenience.

There are three members in this group; we will split the work evenly among each other. Each of us will come up with ideas to add on to our project. To complete this app, we planned to put together all feedbacks from students and staffs, create the app base on feedbacks and original City Tech website, test it ourselves and have students experience it, then modify the app as needed.  While creating the application, works and codes can be combined later on for a product.

Our meeting will mostly be held either in class, online webcam communication on Monday night, and the social app called “WeChat”. The reason is mainly due to our work and school schedule, a group member has multiple jobs, while the other has work that takes up most of the time. We prefer webcam session because it would be the next closest to face to face communication.

Communication will be hard but, by the end of the project, we will learn how to code together, work collaboratively, and to cope with each other’s schedule. In addition, we will have experience of real life work situation of creating a project and working in a team to accomplish a product.

Our project is a promotion and support of the City Tech computer club. The focus is spreading knowledge of the computer club and increasing technology focused student interest in the club itself. Essentially we are trying to educate the technology focused students on what the computer club is and what it can offer them.

As a group, we feel very enthusiastic about the idea of helping our fellow students. It is important because the only computer club within a computer centric school doesn’t seem to be as well-known as it should be. It is relevant to this course because it will take a very precise tone and word base to communicate with various groups and individuals so as to persuade them to take interest in our cause and in the computer club itself.

The stakeholders are the entire city tech student body. All of our accomplishments in this project will benefit the students. It will give them greater access to the things that they are entitled to being in a school focused on technology. The audience will essentially include the entire student body but it will also include higher ups within the school (faculty, workers, etc…). Our project’s focus is to bring the computer club to a point where it is essentially interwoven into the fabric of the students at city tech. Our goal is to assist the club in becoming what it should be.

As a group, we have a variety of project deliverables. We will create surveys and distribute them to the student body. Along with the surveys, however, will be an attached informative/persuasive memo. The memo will include key information about the computer club and the wording will be biased toward our cause of recruiting new members to the computer club. We will also be working on a club improvement showcase showing how the computer club can better improve its image. The showcase will based off the results of the surveys and our own personal research. The showcase will also point out key limitations of the computer club. We will also be showing our Gantt chart, which will show what, when, and how certain portions of this project are to be finished.

Our work plan shall be divvied up based on strengths and availability. Derrick is focusing on the coordination of the group. Lian will be handling the contact and communication of the key individuals of the computer club through email. Chris will be focusing on providing information and key topics for our meetings and also the recording of major data and points made. Deniel will be focusing on the consolidation and the uploading of our work to pre-identified avenues (Openlab, Dropbox, class, etc…). In addition to the main jobs that we are assigned, we also have group assignments after every meeting.

Now onto the deliverables due. The survey ideas and actual format will discussed upon in our next meeting this Friday. However, we will have the surveys and memo first draft completed by next week. All major job functions in this work plan are subject for change and flexibility. We also won’t hesitate to notify and lean on each other for help or assistance.

We plan to complete this project by collaborating closely and effectively with each other. We will also be collaborating closely with the computer club, students and faculty alike. Our group already have established times that are comfortable for us to meet up and discuss this project. Fridays in the afternoon are this groups “in person” meeting time. We also have a Google group forum to communicate with each other at any time. We’ve also exchanged phone numbers and Skype addresses so that all avenues of communication are covered. We have designated weekend afternoon’s for Skype meetings.

We will learn how to improve an already established system through this project. We will learn how to accomplish that through to collaboration and planning power of a group effort. By utilizing ideas from every person in our group, as well as using our research and hard efforts to supplement that, we will pave the way for our success in this project. Although it will not be an easy task, we will strive to make it a reality

For our collaborative final project, we have decided to create a video game along with a user’s manual. The manual would be like other game manuals, which would describe how to set up the game, and how to play it.

The video game itself will be a first person horror game, set in the mid 19th century. It will feature both survival horror and psychological horror elements. We came up with this idea around Halloween time, even though by the time we’re finished it will be nearly Christmas. We’ve come up with a simple premise: the protagonist wakes up in a jail cell, with no recollection of how he got there, and the player will have to escape the dungeon using wits and cleverness, and not get killed in the process. The game will involve stealth, light puzzle solving, encounters with dangerous creatures with no combat system, as well as exploration. As of now we don’t have a name for the game yet. The game will run on Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Mac OS X, and Linux.
The game will be built upon HPL2 engine, using the developer tools offered by Frictional Games, creators of the engine and several horror games including “Amnesia: The Dark Descent” which is made on the same engine. This means our project will utilize models and mechanics from Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Time constraints are another reason for this decision. We predict the game will be around two hours long, again with time constraints being an attributing factor.

This project is relevant to the course because it involves plenty of technical writing. We’re going to be creating something, and then we will create instructions that show how to use it. Similar to the “Instructions and Usability Testing” assignment, but much more in-depth. Our project will also replicate what you get in the real world when purchasing a horror game – you get a game, and you get an instruction manual.

The purpose is simple: the world thrives on media. From video games to television and film, there is always a place for media entertainment. Horror is an established (although niche) video game genre, so the audience would be gamers… especially those who like horror games. Our project would provide entertainment to our audience, challenge their problem solving skills by introducing the player to challenging scenarios, and to a lesser extent it may challenge their analytical reading skills through in-game writing that builds on several themes such as desperation, selfishness, and society’s unwillingness to act in serious situations, complete with references to other popular horror movies and games. In addition, creating instructions for something as large as a game will build up our technical writing skills further.

The first step of our work plan is to make the game. We could do research on horror game design, to gather other ideas. This would include looking up things related to the setting we chose, to make a more authentic game. Once we’ve created and tested the game, we would move on to making a user’s manual for it. We’d get others to test the game with our manual as well, to see if they can get it running by following our instructions.

We’d be doing different types of research for this project, in addition to what was said above. We are considering doing research on the horror game industry, looking at its origins, looking at the most successful horror games as well as the least successful horror games. Our research might also include looking at other game manuals, so we can get a better idea on what to include in ours.

Jason will be doing the game development, since that’s a field he has years of experience in. The group will collaborate on the game design too. All three of us will gather research on the things mentioned, and we’ll all collaborate on the writing together. Jason will be proofreading and making sure all of the writing fits together, so that it doesn’t look like the writings of three people stitched together. The project-specific deliverables would be the manual to go with the game, and of course the game itself.

Aside from class meetings, we will meet after class in the library or somewhere else on school grounds, since it fits into our schedules. We will also be using an online chatroom through a program called Steam, so that’s two synchronous communication methods outside of class and it should be sufficient for completing the project. We’ll be sharing files through Dropbox or Google Drive.

By working on this project, we’ll greatly improve our collaboration skills since this project is large scale, it spans a long time, and it is worth half our grade. It will also bolster our technical writing skills, since we’d be writing instructions for such a large project that we made.

According to The United States Department of Labor, the number of jobs for the electrical engineering field available in 2012 were close to 306,100. However, to fill all of the positions, there were only 166,100 electrical engineers. According to the ManpowerGroup, the gap between skilled trade jobs and other jobs will become more acute.

With all this in mind we have decided to create a board-game targeted at grade school kids. We are looking at grade school kids who are just getting into science. At this age kids are just starting to understand the world better and are more  impressionable. The purpose and our intention, with this game, is to get them interested in electrical engineering and hopefully pursue it as a career. Being that this is a board-game, our deliverables will be the game itself, a manual to go along with the game, a set of rules for the game, and a set of question cards(some of which will be blank for the teacher to fill in). We see the game being introduced to the kids in classrooms when they first get into electricity in their science classes. They will have to answer questions based on the current lesson (whether they be the ones provided by the teacher or ones the teacher makes up, does not matter), and for each question they get right they will get to complete a circuit. The goal of the game will be to complete a circuit three times to win. Each time the circuit is completed a light will shine indicating that they completed it. All of the circuitry will be set inside the board and the teacher will be present at all times, so there should be no safety concerns. With this hands on approach using electricity and engineering they get to see how they can work something that looks so technical. The game we are making is not designed to be something with high replayability, but something to grab their attention and get them interest in electronics and electrical engineering.

Throughout the semester we will need to do a few things. Firstly, some in-depth research on when kids start learning science, particularity electrical science. Then, we will find exactly what age group we are working with(though we want to aim for grade school kids). This is very important because currently we only have an idea and it will change how the game is designed, taking into account their limitations and knowledge. This will show us exactly how intricate the game needs to be made. After we know all this, we will need to research materials for the board-game. Then it’s just a matter of putting it all together.

We will complete the project in steps. First, all the research and information will get gathered together. This will include online research, but also speaking to teachers to see how we can cater to their needs. We will work on all that together and we have a GoogleDrive set up where we are all putting the research that we find. We will communicate over Skype, but also meet in person when we need to put the board together for the game. Once the research is sufficient enough, we will gather all the materials and proceed to design the board. After the design we have to actually build it. Then it’s just a matter of testing the game and finalizing everything.

At the end of all this we will learn more about electrical engineering. We will also have a better understand of the school system and maybe figure out why there is a lack of electricians and electrical engineers. More importantly we hope to get kids more interested in electrical engineering because that will benefit everyone in the long run.

Our project will be an active support of the only computer club within city tech. Specifically, our group is seeking ways to improve the computer club in regards to the student body. With this idea in mind, we can run through a gambit of ideas that can play off of the techniques we’ve learned in this course. When we say improve, we mean the acquisition of hardware and software, quality work spaces, creation of a forum, technology and field specialty trips and more.

As a group, we feel very enthusiastic about the idea of helping our fellow students. It is important because the only computer club within a computer centric school doesn’t seem to have to amount of support it should have. It is relevant to this course because it will take a very precise tone and word base to communicate with various groups and individuals so as to persuade them to our cause.
The stakeholders are the entire city tech student body. As all of our work, if successful, will solely benefit the students. It will give them greater access to the things that they are entitled to being in a school focused on technology. The audience will essentially include the entire student body but it will also include higher ups within the school(faculty,workers,etc…). Our project’s is to bring the computer club to a point where it is essentially interwoven into the fabric of the students at city tech. Our goal is to assist the club in becoming what it should be.

We will need to take many steps to ensure we stay on task for this project this semester. A carefully thought out Gantt chart is a possibility after we have thought out the finer details of our project. We can have milestones setup to mark our progress. We can even establish personal and group checklists.

We will need to conduct various types of research. We will need to research into how clubs get funding and budgets. We will have to research how other schools treat their computer clubs and what resources are available to them. We will also need to conduct surveys of the city tech student body to see what they want from their computer club. We would also need to research how to go about the process of getting all of these changes implemented.

We plan to complete this project by collaborating closely and effectively with each other. We will also be collaborating closely with the computer club, students and faculty alike. Our group already have established times that are comfortable for us to meet up and discuss this project. So far Fridays in the afternoon seem to be our best time to meet. We also have a google group forum of sorts to communicate with each other at any time. We’ve also exchanged phone numbers and skype addresses so that all avenues of communication are covered.

Each group member will assigned work based on their strengths. However, we will assist each other at every step of the way so that we may all have ideas and topics fully fleshed out and executed. Peer review and collaboration is key in this project. We won’t be able to move forward without having the input from every individual.

We will learn how to improve a already establish system through this project. We will learn how to accomplish that through to collaboration and planning power of a group effort. By utilizing ideas from every person in our group, as well as using our research and hard efforts to supplement that, we will pave the way for our success in this project. Although it will not be an easy task, we will strive to make it a reality.