Posted on April 23: IBM Challenge brings out animal instincts

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/IBM_challenge.jpg” caption=”IBM Challenge”]A dog, a mythological creature and an eagle have what it takes to impress IBM.

The Rottweiler Reactor Sentry was the winning project in the third annual IBM challenge. Second place went to Cerberus Satefy System and an honorable mention was awarded to Eagle Eyes Monitoring System.

Software engineering students in their senior thesis course competed in the challenge by building a monitoring system for the McMaster Nuclear Reactor.

“The winning teams in particular did an excellent job of applying their software engineering education towards building a functional and reliable system,” says Spencer Smith, assistant professor of computing and software, who is in his first year of teaching the thesis course.

In the course, teams of students design and document a software system. Teams consider the entire software development cycle, from elicitation of requirements to design to implementation and testing. The designs take into account economic, health, safety, legal and marketing factors.

The top cash award of $1,000 went each to Ryan Oattes (team leader), Andrew DeDecker, Mark Dzialo, Chinedu Maduakor, Matthew Roy and Kai Ki Tam.

Members of the second place team received $500 each. Team members include Reid Copeland (team leader), Rudi Batic, Anish Passi, Shabbir Patel and Yogamala Satheeswaran.

An honorable mention went to Ayako Watanabe (team leader), Chris Matthews, Anthony Helou, Vidya Subramanya and Jingda Li.

This is the third year IBM has judged the competition. Four representatives watched the final demonstrations by the 14 senior thesis teams.

In the first two years of the program, taught by David Parnas and Ridha Khedri, the projects were on facial recognition software and a biographical information database.

Photo caption: Pictured at the April 17 awards ceremony, from left, Stephen Perelgut, skills strategists and university relations manager, Mark Dzialo, Andrew DeDecker, Matthew Roy, Kai Ki Tam, Ryan Oattes, Nadine Nichols, manager of HR for the IBM SWG Canada lab and Sam Kiosses, recruiter for the IBM SWG Canada lab.

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[img_inline align="right" src="http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/IBM_challenge.jpg" caption="IBM Challenge"]A dog, a mythological creature and an eagle have what it takes to impress IBM.<p><br />
<br />
The Rottweiler Reactor Sentry was the winning project in the third annual IBM challenge. Second place went to Cerberus Satefy System and an honorable mention was awarded to Eagle Eyes Monitoring System.<p><br />
<br />
Software engineering students in their senior thesis course competed in the challenge by building a monitoring system for the McMaster Nuclear Reactor.<p><br />
<br />
"The winning teams in particular did an excellent job of applying their software engineering education towards building a functional and reliable system," says Spencer Smith, assistant professor of computing and software, who is in his first year of teaching the thesis course.<p><br />
<br />
In the course, teams of students design and document a software system. Teams consider the entire software development cycle, from elicitation of requirements to design to implementation and testing. The designs take into account economic, health, safety, legal and marketing factors.<p><br />
<br />
The top cash award of $1,000 went each to  Ryan Oattes (team leader), Andrew DeDecker, Mark Dzialo, Chinedu Maduakor, Matthew Roy and Kai Ki Tam.<p><br />
<br />
Members of the second place team received $500 each. Team members include Reid Copeland (team leader), Rudi Batic, Anish Passi, Shabbir Patel and Yogamala Satheeswaran.<p><br />
<br />
An honorable mention went to Ayako Watanabe (team leader), Chris Matthews, Anthony Helou, Vidya Subramanya and Jingda Li.<p><br />
<br />
This is the third year IBM has judged the competition. Four representatives watched the final demonstrations by the 14 senior thesis teams.<p><br />
<br />
In the first two years of the program, taught by David Parnas and Ridha Khedri, the projects were on facial recognition software and a biographical information database.<p><br />
<br />
<i>Photo caption: Pictured at the April 17 awards ceremony, from left, Stephen Perelgut, skills strategists and university relations manager, Mark Dzialo, Andrew DeDecker, Matthew Roy,  Kai Ki Tam, Ryan Oattes, Nadine Nichols, manager of HR for the IBM SWG Canada lab and Sam Kiosses, recruiter for the IBM SWG Canada lab.</i>

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