Contact: Bob Ratliff
While students in David Dampier's software engineering class at Mississippi State University are past worrying about science fair projects, they're helping some young students who face the annual ritual.
Dampier's students, along with those in computer science professor Thomas Philip's senior software design project, are developing a software program that enables K-12 students and teachers to complete science fair entry application forms online.
"Each year, we try to work with a real-world client to produce a software product that will actually be used," Dampier said. "In the past, we've helped users as diverse as the United States Navy, florists and medical personnel."
This year, the assistant professor of computer science was asked by Sheri McLaurin, education outreach coordinator for the College of Engineering, to create software that could immediately assist participants in the Mississippi Region V Science and Engineering Fair.
"Students and teachers must complete a lot of paperwork to submit a science fair entry," McLaurin said. "If the process were streamlined, we felt they would have more time to devote to the projects."
The 16-county regional fair is sponsored on campus each spring semester by McLaurin's office, the College of Engineering K-12 Outreach Program. Region V includes the counties of Attala, Carroll, Choctaw, Clay, Kemper, Lauderdale, Leake, Lowndes, Montgomery, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Scott, Webster, and Winston.
Students from Starkville's Armstrong Middle School recently were on the MSU campus to learn the basics of developing a local science fair project. In the process, they became the first to test the initial phase of the Science and Engineering Information System.
"The Armstrong students were nervous at first, but the software engineering team soon had them at ease with the program," McLaurin said. "The session also provided an opportunity to get feedback from one of the age groups that will be using the program."
Dampier said the project was special because it offers a time-saving innovation for science fair participants while providing a different type of challenge for the software engineering class.
"In the past, software engineering students developed products for real clients, but this is the first time they have gotten the experience of working as both contractors and subcontractors," Dampier said. "By having the senior design students work directly with the client and the software engineering class working as their subcontractor, each gained a new learning perspective."
After distributing the Science and Engineering Information System among the 16-county region, McLaurin's office is making plans to expand distribution to the state's other six science fair regions and, ultimately, to the international program.
"Since the International Science and Engineering Fair can receive the information via computer, the program can be used by students around the world who are entering the competition," McLaurin said.
"This project will provide a major new service to the science fair program," she added. "In the process, it will dramatically demonstrate the quality of Mississippi State's software engineering students."