IBM puts software engineering students to the test
[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/ibm-awards.jpg” caption=”David Muir, Ethel Macasias, FanFan Huang, Nadine Nichols, Kiruthiga Sinnarajah, Michael Darmitz, Alan Sia and Husein Shamshudin. Photo by Spencer Smith.”]Two teams of McMaster software engineering students placed first and second in the seventh annual Software Engineering Design Project Competition last week. The competition, sponsored by IBM, is part of the senior software engineering capstone design project in SFWR ENG 4G06. Seven teams participated in the competition.
In this year's project, teams of five or six students developed Remote Image Guided Autonomous Rescue Robots (RIGARR). The inspiration for the project comes from real life rescue robots, which are used in a disaster when the conditions are too dangerous for human rescuers.
To determine the path for the rescue mission, the teams were given a digital image showing the destinations they had to reach and the obstacles blocking their path. Teams competed to reach all of the destinations in the shortest time.
Besides competing for the fastest time, the teams also competed to be judged the best according to a panel of IBM judges. The judges for the competition were Husein Shamshudin, IT specialist, and Stephen Perelgut project manager, University Relations.
When asked about the projects, Perelgut said, “First, the projects were all excellent and there isn't a group that we wouldn't have felt justified as a winner and second, we felt we owed it to the teams to chose a winner since they had all worked so hard.”
Shamshudin added, “The quality of the projects and final presentations reflects the quality of this year's graduating McMaster software engineering class. They all have bright futures ahead of them.”
The hardware used by the team consisted of the Lego Mindstorms product, which is a kit that combines traditional Lego bricks with a computer control unit, motors, sensors, wheels and gears.
The teams used the following systematic process for designing and developing their robot and the associated user interface software:
1) they elicited, analysed and documented the requirements,
2) designed the system architecture for the software and hardware,
3) documented the interface specification for each software module,
4) implemented and integrated their system, and
5) tested their robot and its interface through unit and system testing.
The winners were announced by IBM representatives Nadine Nichols, talent manager, IBM SWG Canada Lab, Robb Myers, recruitment partner, and David Muir, manager, Compilers & Tools System i5 AD Technology, IBM Toronto Software Lab.
“This year's presentation focused on how we can apply a robotics solution to potentially help save people,” said Nichols. “The winning team's (Mr. Robotto) presentation helped to emphasize the reasons why software engineers and the solutions they develop play an essential role in society. For this reason, it is important that students and parents understand our need for encouraging others to consider enrolling into the disciplines of computer science and engineering.”
The course instructor, Dr. Spencer Smith, added, “The students this year excelled in solving a challenging problem. Not only did they have to get a Lego robot to perform a challenging mission within tight tolerances, they also had to develop sophisticated image processing algorithms.”
The IBM representatives awarded first and second place prizes, consisting of monetary awards and an engraved plaque with the winner's names. The plaques are on display in the main office of the Department of Computing and Software.
The winners include:
First place: Team 5 (Mr. Robotto): Michael Darmitz, FanFan Huang, Ethel Macasias, Alan Sia and Kiruthiga Sinnarajah
Second place: Team 6 (The NaviBot): Justin Chang, James Leroux, Xuan Li, Moffat Matenge and Robert Zagorac
For more information about the senior thesis course, please contact Dr. Spencer Smith at smiths@mcmaster.ca.
