As part of their senior capstone class, computer science students at the College of Charleston have been working on projects to help solve the needs of several Lowcountry businesses, universities and manufacturers.

These students were divided into 10 teams affiliated with several Charleston-area employers, each determined to address a variety of computing challenges. They were tasked with creating apps for carmakers, 3D models of blueprints for a software company and a mobile game using one of the industry’s most popular engines, among other tasks.

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And later this month, they’ll present those projects during the department’s Harbor Walk After Five.

“Students get an authentic experiential learning experience since they are developing a real project for a real company in an agile, software engineering development environment,” says computer science department chairman Sebastian van Delden. “In the process, the students develop a rapport with industry professionals that could lead to their first job or internship.”

Chris Mack ’13, Coastal Service Manager for engineering firm AECOM, says businesses also benefit from this partnership.

“CofC is producing outstanding computer practitioners and fulfilling the critical demands of over 200 tech companies in the Charleston region,” he says. “Public-to-private partnerships are created through CofC’s computer science courses, which leverage and exploit cutting-edge technologies to solve real-world challenges and to create new innovations.”

Harbor Walk After Five concludes the spring semester capstone courses with a poster session, demos and industry project presentations.

Presentations will include:

  • Team Mercedes-Benz’s plant visualization tool for the new Sprinter Van manufacturing plant in Ladson, South Carolina.
  • Team Bosch’s visual part cataloging app.
  • Team AECOM’s augmented reality accretion visualization tool for shoreline groins in Folly Beach.
  • Team PokitDok’s big data, machine learning algorithm for ranking a patient’s doctor preferences.
  • Team Atlatl’s malleable, vector graphics-based 3D model of a building from a 2D blueprint, created using the Unity game engine.
  • Team MUSC’s efforts to build an UX/UI to a dynamic-building, data-driven reporting tool.
  • Team netGalaxy Studios’s augmented-reality, multi-user, defeat-the-monster mobile-app game using the Unity game engine.
  • Team Hawkes Learning Technologies’ meeting optimizer application.
  • Team LocateYourCare’s doctor appointment scheduling mobile app.
  • Team CofC IT Services’ automated cybersecurity ticketing system for processing firewall configuration requests.

Harbor Walk After Five will begin at 5:30 p.m. April 26, 2017, at Harbor Walk West (360 Concord St.)