Project Options

Last updated July 28, 2023

There will be a total of 3 options for the entire class. Every team must choose one option. Because we have such a big class, it will be too hard to manage a different project for every team. Instead, we will have these options available acting more like project "themes", and each team can propose their own solution.

Three of the options have a client. These projects are described below. If you don't like either of these, you can choose the fourth option. We will decide on that option as a collective in the second week of class.

1. Sharing Leftover Food

Project goal: To have a mobile app that connects people who expect to be throwing food away and give it to people who are eager to receive food for free.
Target users:
- Givers: An average adult who has the financial ability to buy food, has access to Internet and phone/computer, and is willing to have excess food picked up at their home or willing to drop excess food at a common public location
- Receivers: An average adult who is struggling to make ends meet with the rising cost of living, has access to a personal phone, a work computer, or a public computer (e.g., at the local library), may have dependents (e.g., children or elderly parent), and may or may not be able to pick up food unless it is at a convenient location (e.g., near a bus stop).
Things to think about when scoping your project: This list is non-exhaustive. It is only meant to get you thinking about the variety of ways you may choose to scope and design this project.
- Will this app be dual-platform?
- Do users need to log in to use this app? Will user history or other private information be saved?
- How much information will you need the users to reveal (to the app and to others)?
- What type of food is allowed to be shared?
- What ways might users abuse this app?
- Where will the data be stored and for how long?
- What if the shared food is not picked up?
- Can users communicate and negotiate the pickup protocol?

2. Generating Course Material

Project goal: To create a responsive web application that supports educators in adapting course materials using generative artificial intelligence.
Target users:
- Educators: K-12 teachers or university instructors who already have a basic set of materials for a course or concept but want to adapt them in another way for a different audience (e.g., someone who has English as a second language, someone who has expertise with another programming language vs. a novice programmer, tailoring examples to talk about the planets instead of cars), has basic computer skills, has access to the Internet
- Private Tutors: Individuals who have exercises they use in their lessons but want to adapt the difficulty of the exercises or have a larger bank of practice questions to use, has good computer skills, has access to the Internet
Things to think about when scoping your project: This list is non-exhaustive. It is only meant to get you thinking about the variety of ways you may choose to scope and design this project.
- Can users adapt material using different devices, such as tablets, laptops, and desktops?
- Do users need to log in to use this web app? Will user history and content be saved?
- How will the generative AI component be integrated into the app to facilitate a smooth user interaction experience?
- How will the app inform the user about the rate limits on the number of requests a user can make in a given timeframe?
- What type of media can be adapted? Text, images, videos, ...?
- Is there a step-by-step process that allows the user to refine the content generated by the AI? Can the AI learn from this feedback?
- Can generated content be shared with other users on the platform? If so, are other users able to rate what is shared?
- Will the app and the course material follow web accessibility standards (WCAG)?
- What format can the content be exported from the application? Can users easily copy/paste the generated content into their preferred format?
- How will new users to your app figure out what to do? Will there be a help/FAQ page, interactive guide or tooltips for assisting with each step?

3. Video Streaming Using Cloud Technology

Project goal: To create a web application using AWS services for professionals who will receive video submissions from users while protecting their privacy.
Target users:
- Senders: An average adult who has created a video of themself, has access to Internet and phone/computer, and may want to have their face blurred throughout the video for privacy reasons.
- Receivers: Professionals (e.g., doctors, teachers, recruiters/interviewers) who need to review the video submissions for diagnosis or assessment reasons, and has access to Internet and computer.
Things to think about when scoping your project: This list is non-exhaustive. It is only meant to get you thinking about the variety of ways you may choose to scope and design this project.
- How can the app facilitate the recording of the video after the sender logs in?
- How might senders review what has been recorded and decide if they want to re-record it before submitting it?
- How will data security and user privacy be enforced and communicated to the senders?
- Will the application be responsive to work on phones, tablets, and desktops?
- Will the receiver be able to provide feedback to the sender, or request follow up video submissions?
- How will professionals know when a diagnosis/assessment is required?
- Can senders view their videos in the system and delete them?
- Will the senders or receivers be able to decide how long the videos should be retained in the system?

4. Web Browser Game

Project goal: To create a game that can be played against another human or a bot.
Target users:
- Player: An average university student with good knowledge of general computing and the Internet, and who is already familiar with the game but may need to be reminded of the rules.
Things to think about when scoping your project: This list is non-exhaustive. It is only meant to get you thinking about the variety of ways you may choose to scope and design this project.
- Which game(s) will the project support?
- Will the game be online and played through a web browser?
- Does the game keep track of player speeds, scores, or other metrics?
- Does the game analytics to provide feedback to the user on the gameplay?
- Can the player pause the game? If so, how?
- Can a player send a challenge request to another player? Or an event request to another player so they can meet up at a given time to play together?
- Is there a bot that the player can play against?
- Does the game have varying difficulty levels (e.g., the use of a more intelligent bot)?
- Can the game be adapted to be made suitable for another target user group, such as children who are old enough to be literate?
- Does the project include a platform for players to contribute their own games to it so other players can play them?