Project:Possibility presents Orientation October 16, 2008

Welcome to the SS12 Orientation Agenda All about SS12 –Purpose –Projects –Judging –Schedule Q&A

The Purpose of SS12 Create empowering software for the disabled –Because technology is powerful –Because there is a need –Because we can Software: Open sourced –Malleable –Knowledge is retained and nurtured within a community –Free to those who need it most – it cannot be sold for profit SS12 is an Extension of Project:Possibility

Who is behind SS12? Organizers –Project:Possibility –USC Association for Computing Machinery Corporate Sponsors –Lockheed Martin –Mozilla –Microsoft –Sony University Sponsors –Undergraduate Student Government –USC Stevens

Word Prediction Time is money, but what about those who have limited mobility and can’t type quickly? This project is extending work completed in SS12 ’07 and Semester Project This software helps people with limited mobility by predicting the next word to be typed based on past words/characters. Useful Skills: –Data structures –User Interface –Algorithms Mentor: Michael Parker (Google)

Community Captioner This software will allow the community to caption videos for the hearing impaired Useful Skills –Database –Javascript –Flash Mentor: Ely Lerner (Amgen)

Neural Impulse Actuator Game Everyone loves a great game, even those who are visually impaired and hearing impaired Neural Impulse Actuator ( neural_impulse_actuator) is hardware that maps neural impulses to keyboard strokeshttp:// neural_impulse_actuator This game is for users to play by just thinking the action Mentor: Harold Tan (FastTrackFundraising.com)

Multi-IM Client A lot of people communicate now-a- days through instant messenger programs This software will make an accessible multi-IM client Mentor: Brian D’Souza (Amgen)

Axsjax There has been no way to report dynamic updates to a website to assistive technology—until now! (WAIARIA) AxsJax: Inject accessibility into existing websites One project will create an accessible method to retrieve walking directions from Google Maps Another project will make LinkedIn accessible Useful Skills –Web development –DOM –Javascript Mentor: Prashanth Pandian (JPL)

Barcode Reader This project is to help those who are visually impaired. The software will be deployed onto a phone, which uses the camera to take a picture of the barcode UPC barcode reader will connect to a database to provide information such as nutritional information, technical specs, and pricing Mentor: Michael Crowley (USC)

Exhibition Projects Speaking Thunderbird –Integrate TTS engine to Thunderbird client, and make the new module as an extension for thunderbird Games –For the visually impaired and/or hearing impaired Head Tracker –Use a web cam to track head movement and correlate it to mouse movement Mentor: Ojas Mulay (Amgen), Mike Parker (Google)

Judging Is this something that someone would want to continue work on? This is open source! –Architecture –Code Quality –Documentation Is this an effective way of accomplishing the task? –Ingenuity –Innovation How well did we meet the challenge? –Challenge factor

Our Recommendations Divide and Conquer is the name of the game –Break into roles –Paired Programming –Elect a team lead Eat, drink, and be merry –take breaks, have fun! Spend sufficient time on design

SS12 Mentors/Judges Kanwal Mahal (Sandia National Lab) Stefani Chan (Sandia National Lab) Felix Rabinovich (Amgen) Michael Crowley (USC) Michael Parker (Google) Harold Tan (FastTrackFundraising) Prashanth Pandian (JPL) Brian D’Souza (Amgen) Ojas Mulay (Amgen) Ely Lerner (Amgen)

Prizes Grand Prize –$1000 Cash – To Top team Other Prizes –$160 USC Bookstore certificates –Microsoft Software/Games –SS12 Tshirts

Schedule Thursday – Orientation Students register project preferences Mentors contact team members on Friday Saturday Check in begins 9:00 AM Saturday –Name tags –Team locations –Updated schedule Opening Remarks/Announcements begin promptly at 9:30 AM Code-A-Thon!!! Sunday Day begins promptly by 9:00 AM Project Presentations –~10 minutes/team at 7:30 PM

What to Bring Laptop with Wireless AC Adaptor Pillows/blankets Text books/references

To Do Vote for your project preferences, due by tomorrow at noon Set up SVN on your computer Learn how to use wiki When you receive your project/team assignment –Set up relevant development environments –Re-familiarize yourself with your development environments Less fumbling, the better –Feel free to contact your teammates

Q&A ? ?

Thank You Lockheed Martin Project:Possibility –Stanley Lam, Aaron Chan ACM Executive Board –David Richardson, Prateek Tandon, David Hodge You, for being part of SS12 Remember to submit your project preferences tonight!