1. An Undergraduate Research Course Aimed at Furthering the Web Michael Wollowski Computer Science Department Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

2. Overview Introduction Course Components Project Presentations Experiences and Conclusions

3. Introduction Web offers a new frontier Many technical, social, and legal challenges left to be addressed Low lead-time to make contributions Students are fascinated by web Students can shape the web’s future through: research innovation

4. Course Objectives In our department, students usually do not get an opportunity to choose their own projects Our students are very good at solving problems In this course, students learn techniques that assist in selecting and evaluating interesting projects

5. Course Components Setting our sights: A look at some innovators Analysis: What is the web? Where might it be headed? What would a future, dominated by the web, look like? Innovation and research: Team project Keeping current: Presentations Learning about tools: Introduction to major web- technologies such as Perl, XML, database interfaces, search engines

6. Project Accepted way to learn at RHIT Students determine their own project and group Innovation/Research: Can be anything, provided it advances the web We spent about three weeks on the project proposal phase We had several “jam sessions”

7. Project Jam Sessions In them, students presented ideas for possible projects Goals of jam sessions: To obtain feedback on whether project has already been undertaken To identify project partners First session: At end of first week Anything goes

8. Project Jam Sessions Second session: At end of second week Students were asked to start forming groups Students were asked to perform some initial research as to existing solutions At end of third week: Project proposals were due Feedback was given over weekend Some projects were rejected Most project proposals were very interesting

9. Selected Projects Web-driven Soda machine: Received local and national media attention RHINO: Integrating existing information services into one, adding security, solving confidentiality problems. This system is in the process of being adopted by RHIT P2P: To reduced internet traffic and deal with the limited internet pipe I/R port for web-driven soda machine Graphical query editor for boolean search expressions

10. Presentations Everyone had to give a presentation of recent newspaper clippings Presentation had to: Summarize contents Indicate how the work can be applied to other areas Get a discussion going Aim of presentations: Underlining the importance of keeping current Look for cross-fertilization Learn to quickly gather information

11. Presentations Major areas of presentations: Shopping Virtual classroom (performed in a virtual classroom) Networks Confidentiality and security Side-effect: Discover topics students wished they would have proposed for project

12. Presentations Additionally, students were encouraged to report on interesting web-sites as they encountered them Students were encouraged to report on timely topics A good number of them did A good number took advantage of those reports (AmIHotOrNot.com to get to know people, obtain ratings on their professors, and self)

13. Experiences The timeliness of many topics is stunning. Town-hall meeting on Bandwidth problems and how to address them Confidentiality of student picture scripts Students in one way or other caused RHIT to address these issues Students actively sought to find solutions to those problems Lessons learned: Our work does make a difference Road bumps are not always of a technical nature

14. Conclusions Easy for students to make contributions Timeliness of many topics is stunning