27-07-2023
Third-year students from the Undergraduate Programme in Computer Engineering at NOVA FCT publicly presented, on 21 July, proposals for applications that integrate academic management functionalities, into a single platform, with the aim of enhance communication between students and teachers.
Regarding the work developed, Carlos Viegas Damásio, the responsible professor for the Curricular Unit where the projects were developed, emphasised the commitment of about 70 undergraduates distributed over 14 teams, working for almost 5 months, resulting in robust functional pre-products with concerns for security, efficiency, functionality and usability. The result is of high quality and can serve as a for a system that could be adopted by NOVA FCT, or even generalised to other NOVA organic units.
Among the 14 proposals submitted, the most notable are the use of features such as the integration of a 3D model or a chatbot that interacts in any language, study and work spaces booking/reservation, attendance counting systems at events using QR codes, ticketing for events, lost and found management, and communication and georeferencing of anomalies on campus.
The several student groups highlighted the importance of social and academic dynamisation that these platforms allow. Among the most significant features, they pointed out the creation of forums, chats and calendars that synchronise information across multiple applications, as well as the playful component where, for example, a login can be converted into points and these exchanged for gifts.
The teams of five supported the construction of their products on professional web base platforms (Google Cloud Platform) obtaining knowledge and skills in full stack development. Students work on all aspects of a project: from backoffice programming and management, database implementation and management, to integrating various technologies and programming languages, all the way to the final interface and user experience on mobile and web devices. Additionally, they acquired soft skills in time management and prioritisation, team management, and both face-to-face and digital communication, including public interactions and presentations, and web promotion of their products.
The works were developed within the scope of the course structure "Curricular Development Activity" and were supported by the Department of Computer Science professors Pedro Medeiros, David Semedo, João Leitão and Carlos Viegas Damásio.
