COS 333 Potential External Projects

Wed Feb 20 14:19:01 EST 2008

Here are some very sketchy facts on potential projects from other parts of the university that might be of interest to some group in 333. I definitely don't know the full scope of what the potential customers have in mind, but I would be happy to talk to you and to the person(s) on the other end to help make connections and to ensure that the project will be suitable from the COS 333 end.

If any of these sound like they might be appealing, please start by talking to me; this is mainly to avoid having multiple people pile up on someone, but also to make sure that all parties have a general understanding of what to expect. I also have a handful of other ideas that are even less fleshed out, but that might have potential.

OIT has several applications that they wind up doing over and over again; the interesting challenge would be to try for some kind of meta system that would automate some or all of the creation of these fairly stereotyped systems. The two on the top of their list are

An online application form with references, the sort of site that is used to collect applications and references for things like RA and similar student positions.
An event registration system that allows people to register for events, maintain applicant info, allow attendees to enroll in program events, etc.

OIT also has a list of other projects that might well profit from a group doing a pilot. For more information, contact Dave Herrington (daveh).

Donna Liu, WWS, runs the University Channel (Prince story 1/12/07) and is looking for ways to make the site easier to run and scale up. There are interesting problems in upload of data in various formats, canonicalization according to rules by provider and PU, a need to wrap content up in uniform style, etc. It would be nice to have some redundancy and backup, and also to deal with distributed sites.

Design and implement a website for the department of athletics at Princeton, to show news, staff members, activities, scores for the recent sport events, and links to related websites. There are many similarities to a real, commercial enterprise, including frequent activity announcements, and advertisements of significant events (currently mostly done manually). Ideally, it should provide scores of the recent Ivy League competitions. It requires collecting membership and ticket fees online. There's no need to be compatible with the past, so it can be designed from scratch. Contacts: Jamie Zaninovich (senior associate director of athletics) or Kai Li, Chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee on Athletics).

Philip Stern gave me a list of potential of interest to USG; talk to Philip for more details if any of these appeal.

Anonymous Course Comment - a new version of the current application which would allow students to anonymously communicate with faculty and administrators
Campus Walking Map - computes shortest path between locations across campus and displays routes
Course Selection - an application which allows students to request assistance from other students and communicate with them about courses they are interested in taking
Crush 2.0 - a new and improved version of the crushfinder website with additional functionality like the inclusion of anonymous messages, ability to change crush lists, CAS integration
I'm Hungry - an application which allows students to schedule meals with other students on campus and keep track of interclub and university meal exchanges
Point Features - new modules, features, and section to the Point web portal
Student Works Database - a repository for creative student work like poems, songs, essays, photos, and video. These works could be rated, tagged, etc.