Reaction All Years

Imparare Studio Practica Italiano (ISPI) is a cross-platform mobile application that combines the learning user experience of Brightspace and EdPuzzle all into one electronic learning environment to be used by University of Ottawa students enrolled in the Italian Language and Culture program. The client, Professor C. Perissinotto, proposed a mobile app that provides a convenient, all-in-one resource for University of Ottawa Italian Studies students. This app offers course material from Italian Studies classes, as well as Italian language practice.

The client’s current solution involves using multiple online learning tools to supplement her teaching. These include Brightspace, Edpuzzle, and Book Creator. Students enrolled in Cristina’s courses use the University of Ottawa’s Brightspace platform to complete quizzes, submit assignments, view course materials, and access their grades. Edpuzzle is an external learning platform that helps Cristina create interactive videos with embedded quizzes, and hosts a significant portion of the client’s video content. The limitation of these powerful tools is that they are decentralized, which makes it difficult for Cristina’s students to access and fully engage with the course material in a cohesive manner.

Currently, they need access across multiple platforms to take part effectively. Cristina’s vision is to improve and simplify her students’ learning experience. Cristina devised the idea to create a mobile application that can solve this problem. This mobile application combines the learning tools she employs into one platform, allowing students to find course materials with ease, see deadlines, and view other learning resources.

This mobile app combines various learning resources that the client provides to students, and ultimately, is a companion study resource for the Italian Studies department. The app contains language learning resources, resources related to the Italian Humanities (Literature, Art, etc.), as well as an administration portal for the client to update the content of the app’s database.

As part of our project for the Applied Project Management class, we, as project management students, were tasked with organizing a fundraising event for Make-A-Wish. We came up with Karaoke Night since it will serve as a platform for bringing together friends, families, and local businesses. Originally, we had planned various activities such as a volleyball game, pool event, gardening, photobooth for dogs, etc. The purpose of the event is to host a fantastic evening of music, entertainment, and fundraising while bringing attention to the needs of these brave wish children. The nonprofit Make-A-Wish Foundation grants wishes to kid with life-threatening illnesses. Since its founding in 1980, it has developed into one of the most well-known wish-granting organizations in the world, operating in more than 50 countries. (Make-A-Wish) The foundation’s mission is to give children with life-threatening illnesses unforgettable experiences that will inspire them with courage, joy, and hope. The Make-A-Wish Foundation relies on the support of volunteers, donors, and sponsors to fulfil its mission. Volunteers provide their time and skills to grant wishes, organize events, and raise awareness. Donors and sponsors provide the required financial resources to grant the requests. Together, they help thousands of wish children, and their families have happier days. Long after a wish is granted, its effects endure. Studies show that granting wishes can improve kids’ mental and physical health, provide them with a sense of normalcy, and improve their ability to manage their medical issues. The Make-A-Wish Foundation strives to create lasting joy and give wish children and their families the strength to face the future with a new sense of hope. 

We sought to find talented local artists, singers, and artists to the event, and they generously donated their voices to make it an exciting karaoke experience. To promote a warm and enjoyable environment, participants are encouraged to demonstrate their vocal talents, whether as soloists or in groups. 

The event features fundraising activities that inspire attendees to give generously in support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s goal. Fundraising activities can be done by the Open Box. A fun and participatory component can be added to the Karaoke Night event with the “Song Request Box” activity, making the audience feel more involved and engaged with the performances. 

SPEnD is a 3-year research initiative of Algonquin College’s Social Innovation Lab, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research of Council of Canada (SSHRC).
The SPEnD Summer 2023 cohort is focused on:

1. Data Collection/Analysis of College Sector fiscal capacity for social finance
2. Research global social enterprises with a focus on product/service diversity of offerings
3. Identification of demand driven tech enabled business concepts for new student run Social Enterprises
4. Creation of open access materials to support institutions in embracing social innovation.

Inspired by the NASA Space Apps competition and its themes from previous years, Sandglass offers an interactive and interesting way to learn about universal expansion. Since its creation in 2012, the Space Apps competition has inspired hundreds of thousands of individuals to create solutions to challenges in the fields of Earth and space science and technology. Hosted annually in October, participants from 150+ countries contribute solutions to NASA’s challenges, which are released at the beginning of the event weekend and typically give participants two days to develop their solutions.
Though our project was not created to solve a specific challenge from the competition, it was inspired by solutions from previous years to resemble the type of project that would be created for the Space Apps competition, though more in depth thanks to the longer development time available. Because of this, our team’s project experience was different than most. There was no official client for our project, and so we were given free reign to come up with the requirements and features of Sandglass, with the help of our professor and surrogate client. This had its advantages and disadvantages; the team was able to determine its own creative vision for the project, and communication was streamlined without the need to coordinate schedules with a client. However, this meant additional time needed to be spent researching potential projects and the best medium to express these projects while other teams had already received expectations from clients. Surprisingly, even this turned into an unexpected additional advantage, since it made collaboration and communication within the team paramount from the very beginning and helped us to define strengths and roles later on.
This of course culminated in the creation of what Sandglass would become: an educational tool targeted at youth aged 12-17 that, with the help of NASA’s exoplanet archive database, demonstrates the time it would take for an exoplanet to leave Earth’s observable universe and, in doing so, disappear from our sky forever. Users are able to filter through a list of more than 5000 exoplanets to see a visualization animation that shows information about the selected planet and its movement through space. The application also presents the expansion algorithm developed by the team and explains how it is used to produce our results.
All in all, the project was a great learning experience for the team. Resourcefulness, adaptability, and problem solving were key qualities for the unique project experience that we underwent. We were also able to develop new technical skills; Python, the language Sandglass was developed in, was new to our entire team. Our team also had no prior experience developing animation, something that was required for the visualization aspect of the application. This experience has surely provided new and improved skills that the members of our team will be able to carry forward into future endeavors.