This Fall's ITI Showcase Featured 36 Student Projects Plus the Capstone class' Debut of 'Vetcoin'
The School of Communication and Information (SC&I) Fall 2018 Information Technology and Informatics (ITI) Showcase took place on December 11 in the College Avenue Student Center.
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The first half of the ITI Showcase event featured the Prototype and Pitch competition. This semester’s competition drew 36 teams of students from the ITI 210 - Management of Technological Organizations class competing in the Pitch and Prototype Competition. Set up like a trade show exhibition, student teams demonstrated their mobile application prototypes and pitched their IT-based solutions to each other and to a panel of 24 judges drawn from academia, business, and government.

Fall 2018 women making a pitch at the ITI Showcase.

“I’m always so impressed with the innovation, energy, and creativity I see on display during the Pitch and Prototype competition, of working in a team to design an app to  solve a real-world problem is an important part of learning how to be an IT professional and it’s very cool to see how each of our 36 teams interpreted that challenge this semester. I also love hearing how this project helps our students get jobs by giving them hands-on experience and a credential to add to their resume. This is what we hope for as instructors. Also, kudos to the judges for taking time out of their busy days to share their expertise with our students – they are really what make the Showcase experience valuable for our students," said Part-Time Lecturer in the Library and Information Department, Program Assistant to the ITI Program and Organizer of this competition Connie Pascal, Ph.D.

This fall’s Prototype and Pitch projects focused on solving problems in four different topic areas: Education, General Business Process, Social Impact, and Healthcare IT. Both students and judges choose their favorite projects from each topic area with the following student teams being selected as winners:

Student Choice Winners

Healthcare IT: BirthAlert
Education: +1 Knowledge
Gen Business: WeShop
Social Impact: Amazon Smile+

Judges Choice Winners

Healthcare: ScanMD
Education: Plato
Gen Business: Utrak Shipping
Social Impact: BloodPal

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The second half of the ITI Showcase event was the presentation of the Fall 2018 Capstone class’s project VetCoin. VetCoin is a service intended to facilitate and initiate social interactions amongst student veterans. By using a gaming platform, VetCoin implements a unique spin on military-style coins while tackling isolation felt by university veterans. VetCoin carries features such as augmented reality and geolocation capabilities to enhance user gaming experience. These smart coins serve as an agent promoting "meet-ups" in a classic player-vs.-player game scenario. Our purpose is to create a unified sense of community for veterans and students and promote meaningful connections while having fun. VetCoin is the first of its kind to enter the market, contributing to its competitiveness.

For more information on the ITI program, please view the program page.

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