posted on April 18: Software engineering students strut their stuff
[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/IBMSoftwareChallenge2002Final1.jpg”]Six senior software engineering students are $1000 richer after winning this year's IBM Challenge to design the best “Bio-Bank” software product.
For their senior thesis project, 65 students were asked to develop a product that could conceivably be offered on the market after their project was complete. A team from IBM's
Toronto lab assessed the projects for their effectiveness, performance reliability, maintenance and usability.
The student team of Curtis Miles (team leader), Rajan Bhakta, Joseph Fakhri, Trevor Liang, Chris Murray and Alan Young developed the winning system, a product they called BIFF (Biography Information Fact Finder).
The “Bio-Bank” challenge was designed by David Parnas, professor and director of the software engineering program, in response to a practical problem he encountered during a meeting last year.
Even though he has been described as “one of the grandmasters of software engineering”, Parnas doesn't always remember the 'Who's Who' of industry. During a meeting with representatives of a major mobile communications company, Parnas didn't recognize the name of the individual who was the subject of conversation. “I wished I could simply type this person's name into my laptop and get some kind of information about him.”
Parnas eventually learned that the individual in question was the founder of the mobile communications company. His momentary problem, however, had planted the seed of an idea that eventually blossomed into the year-long senior thesis challenge: to build a “Bio-Bank” software product that could be used to collect, access and organize biographical information on individuals in public or private organizations or businesses.
Additionally, students had to create a product that could be used on many platforms, including a standard PC or laptop, palm sized computers and cell phone. They were also required to work both on data stored in a local computer and over networks to servers with bio data.
At the April 11 reception honouring the winning teams, John Wilms, human resources manager for IBM, said that the judging panel was very impressed with the high quality of work and sees benefits on both sides.
“The students benefit from this collaboration with industry by gaining a market perspective on their project, and we have the opportunity to see how today's engineers are thinking and working together.”
Wilms also thanked Parnas and assistant professor Ridha Khedri, for developing and supervising the thesis project teams
and providing IBM the opportunity to have a role in student education.
This is the second year of the IBM Challenge. Last year's challenge was to design a computer face recognition system that police could use to match faces in a scanned database.
There were eleven teams competing in this year's challenge, with the top two teams receiving cash prizes. The second place team of Debra Pollock, Nisha Jha, Ileana Lacaus, Michelle Wong and Kai Ye were awarded $500 each and a certificate of accomplishment.
Wilms notes that the IBM judging panel was very impressed with the high quality of work produced by all the student teams.
“The students really focussed on making their “Bio-Bank” products market-ready, by covering aspects of software design, usability, documention, developing User Guides and professionally presenting the end result.”
At the conclusion of the celebration, Parnas commented that he would not be ashamed to have any of these products on the market and told his students, “Everybody made me feel proud.”
A WINNING PRESENTATION: Winners of this year's IBM Challenge present their “BIFF” project to John Wilms (seated, front left) and Len Chung (seated, front right), from IBM Toronto. The student team, pictured in the Software Quality Research Lab (SQRL), is (from left to right) Alan Young, Rajan Bhakta, Curtis Miles (Team Leader), Joseph Fakhri, Trevor Liang and Chris Murray.
Photo by Rob Tatlock
