Five students from Carl Sandburg College’s IT LAN & Security Specialist program attended the 24th Annual Consortium of Computing Sciences in Colleges Midwest Regional Conference earlier in the fall semester.
The Sandburg team’s project placed third in the application track of the Student Showcase Contest. Their project: “Mobile Technologies First-Year Learning Experience: Integrating Mobile Apps into the EV3 Robotic Platform”. The objective of the project was to show that even with little to no programming knowledge, it’s possible for anyone to develop their own mobile app – due to simplified continued growth in mobile computing. The students used skills learned in the Mobile Technologies class at Sandburg to create an android app that acts as a remote control. The remote was then connected to a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot which included a sensor that allowed the robot to read color. According to the students, there are ample possibilities for expansion beyond their original project – since the EV3 platform is modular. The students were made up of Doug Ferguson, Marcus Beal, Alex Emmert, Chandler Derry, and Michael Clark. In a press release, Ferguson said, “By simplifying the process, it lifts one of the barriers that may keep people from looking at careers in IT.” The team discussed using the concept to develop a game involving the EV3 platform. The conference was held at Calvin College in Grand Rapids Michigan.
