This project is my capstone, or Major Qualifying Project (MQP) for my Computer Science BS degree. It is a comprehensive data collecton application built for the WPI study abroad research project program, called the Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP). It was developed during the summer of 2024, into the first term of the fall semester. I worked on a team of 5, using the Agile methodology for software development.
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The Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) is one of the most distinctive elements of the WPI Plan and WPI's signature project-based curriculum, giving every WPI student the experience of working in interdisciplinary teams to solve a problem or need that lies at the intersection of science and society. Unlike an academic course, this nine-credit-hour requirement involves students working in teams, with students not in their major, to tackle an issue that relates science, engineering, and technology to society.
- WPI Website
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The IQP is a research project, and so it requires students to collect qualitative and quantitative data, conduct interviews, and distribute surveys to complete their reports. However, each project varies greatly, in terms of geographical location, subject matter, objective, and of course, research methods. During my IQP in Monteverde, Costa Rica, my group used an array of softwares and websites to conduct our research. This proved complicated and frustrating at times.
Before jumping into writing code, we had to conduct some research of our own. As a group, we reviewed 20 previous IQP reports to quantify which research methods were most commonly used, so we would be able to focus our app on the best areas. To minimize error, we peer reviewed each other's work to ensure accuracy of our findings.
We also researched other existing data collection apps, to see what features they had and didn't have. We found that existing apps lacked features important to IQP students, while having extraneous features geared towards other types of users.
Students create projects for their teammates to join, so they can collaboratively collect data.
Once logged in, if a student is not already a member of a project, they can join an existing project or create a new one. Once the project is created, they can invite other students to join using the project code.
A form is a reusable data structure. They are usable by anyone in the project and are the main method of data collection.
Forms are a flexible, resusable data structure that is used to collect data in our app. Any student in a project can create or use any of the forms in the project. A form is created once and can be used any number of times. In the demo, a form is being created to track car traffic for a specific location. Interview forms are an extended type of form that includes additional fields for live interview notes and audio recording, which can be transcribed using AI after the interview is completed.
View form entries on a map.
Each form entry can be geotagged with the user's current location or a custom location. These entries can then be viewed on the map, and filterd by date range. The color of the pin indicates whether it represents a data point or an interview, and if mutliple entries were collected at the same location the number above the pin indicates how many entries were collected at that location.
This project was a great stepping stone for my full stack development skills. I took on a large workload of varying tasks, which gave me a deeper understanding across the stack. It was also a great learning experience for development in a remote team, as the main development window was the summer of 2024. Not only did I have to balance time between this project and my internship, but the importance of a robust continuous integration plan is emphasized when the team can't meet in person.
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