The So-So app is the ultimate night out companion! We tackle the problem of how to easily keep track of friends when out in the city so that everyone is safe and happy. With features like safety zones, friend tracking, and SOS alerts it conveniently fits the needs of anyone’s night out. Initial setup of the app includes choosing your preferred safety settings and connecting with your contacts. When heading out for the night you invite your group and start “Night Out Mode”. Once started, So-So tracks everyone in you group for the night, and applies your preferred safety features until the “Night Out Mode” times out. There is no other app that functions quite like So-So. It’s what the So-So Sober you would want!

U.S. Congress has been reducing appropriated funds and personnel from the DOD since 2001 and cut 25% in inflation dollars since 2011.  Reducing the availability funds creates a need to evaluate how useable facility space and how it’s utilized to support the readiness to defend and support the citizens of the U.S. This project actually addresses the above need for adequate facility space to support state emergencies, identify which facilities need added soldier strength to support the local communities and support EXORD 164-15. As of 7 April 2015 EXORD 164-15: Reduce the Installation Facility Footprint, requires the disposal of all excess and poorly maintain facilities from the inventory to conserve funding.  To the citizens of Washington this project ensures during emergencies theirs a facility nearby to provide shelter, base to destitute food, supplies, personnel and equipment to the community.

Having an exercise partner can provide multiple benefits during a workout. For weight lifters having a spotter when lifting, can allow the participant to lift heavier weights, push through more repetitions, maintain proper form, and most importantly ensure safety throughout the exercise. Our own research has shown that people often enjoy having someone to workout with, but also uncovers the difficulties of finding a training partner. Our app Spottr is a social utility application for mobile devices to help connect local gym goers. Designed in mind for weight lifters, Spottr hopes to make the process of finding a workout partner at your gym as easy as possible. With Spottr, users can create a post looking for a training partner, or reply to other posts to connect with other users to coordinate for more effective, satisfying, and safe work outs.

On Saturday March 22, 2014 the communities of Darrington and Oso, Washington experienced the devastating effects of a massive landslide that destroyed property and resulted in the loss of 43 lives. Recognizing the historical significance of this event, the Darrington Historical Society (DHS) quickly began collecting artifacts and information related to the slide. Identified as a priority by DHS was the need to build an archive that was widely available to the public, helped the community to heal, and also had the potential to aid scientific research and rescue operations planning. Toward this end, our Capstone team worked closely with DHS and UW Special Collections to create a digital archive using the CONTENTdm platform. By creating a digital archive searchable via WorldCat, DHS ensures that the Darrington and Oso communities, general public, and research community can continue to access images, documents, maps, videos, and audio recordings associated with the landslide.

Many children use technology regularly but are unfamiliar with underlying concepts of computer programming. ScratchJr is an introductory programming language aimed at users ages 5 and up. Similar to the Scratch programming language developed at MIT, ScratchJr works like a jigsaw puzzle, directing users to snap together pieces of code to create strings of commands. Through a series of four after-school workshops, we utilized ScratchJr on iPads to introduce coding and programming basics to twelve 2nd and 3rd grade students at Northgate Elementary School. Under our direction, students learned to create video game narratives in which they controlled their characters' movements, appearances, and speech with the coding commands available on the application. In our final lesson, we introduced students to the original Scratch and collaboratively created a game. We hope that our computer science-based program has given students increased confidence with technology, and has fostered an interest in STEM fields.

Discovering Phytoplankton Trends in Oceans Using Data Science Abhigyan Kaustubh (Full Time MSIM) Elton Dias (Full Time MSIM) Tanmay Modak (Full Time MSIM) Phytoplanktons are an important part of marine ecosystems, producing nearly half of the world’s oxygen supply by consuming carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. Marine biologists find it difficult to exhaustively study habitats of phytoplankton as it is nearly impossible to draw discrete samples of water from large water bodies. We plan a novel technique of analysing multidimensional flow cytometry data collected by an oceanic cruise at regular time intervals and then use suitable clustering techniques to identify regions in the water body that have similar trends in phytoplankton population. We then plan to make inferences by correlating our findings with environmental factors like temperature and salinity. This is a unique approach and through our findings, we hope to lay the foundation for oceanographers and environmental researchers to conduct further research in marine habitats using data science

Uncertainty makes us uneasy. When we walk into a busy restaurant and see a long line, we feel uncertain, sometimes even intimidated. We want to know whether it is worth it to wait or find another place to eat. TapEat helps remove that uncertainty. Our application provides the wait time for you, the customers, so that you can make an informed decision of where to eat. You don't have to guess or physically go to the restaurant to find that information—you can access it on your phone anywhere. Better yet, once you make the selection, you can check into the line with the app and will receive a notification when your table is ready. You can use the wait time, otherwise spent sitting in a waiting area, to do something productive. We help make your dining experience more pleasant and enjoyable by reducing meaningless wait time.

Have you ever been in a school project where you felt that you were doing most of the work and a few of your teammates were not contributing much? Imagine your frustration if those teammates also happened to be your friends! We bring in “Teamify”, a mobile application that will help teams keep track of each team member’s tasks using a point based system and provide visibility in their performance. It will reduce the pain points of team work by increasing the sense of accountability among the team members and make communication easier. Students can leverage this app to improve the team work experience and productivity of the team. As a proof of concept, we have designed a high-fidelity working mobile prototype and focused on the user experience of the app to help make team work hassle free and enjoyable!

As student researchers, we took an opportunity to provide feedback about introductory information technology courses currently offered at the iSchool. We’ve dubbed these courses the 'INFX Suite'. The INFX Suite, implemented in 2010, is recommended to graduate level master’s students who don’t have a technological background when they enter the iSchool. As fast as technology progresses, we wanted to investigate the INFX Suite to see if it was still fresh. Using three questionnaires, quantitative and qualitative methods have been used to gather and analyze data from iSchool faculty and students, and top iSchools in the United States. Research results revealed the INFX Suite is still in line with current technology content trends, however; meeting student expectations consistently is an area that is lacking. Research outcomes will serve as a reference for the iSchool about future INFX Suite design.