- University News Archive - 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock /news-archive/tag/crimsonhacks/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Thu, 02 May 2019 13:15:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock student hackers win prize for creation of affordable virtual reality safety simulator /news-archive/2019/05/02/crimsonhacks-safety-simulator/ Thu, 02 May 2019 13:15:58 +0000 /news/?p=74153 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock student hackers win prize for creation of affordable virtual reality safety simulator]]> A team of 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students is trying to promote a safer work environment with the introduction of 鈥淟eap into Safety,鈥 an affordable virtual reality safety simulator designed to make the operators more adept at operating powered equipment safely.聽 The team includes Trenton Burroughs, information science major, and Denver Ellis, computer science major, as well as web design students Ryan Hood and Sunny Singh. For their efforts, the students won first place in the Best Hardware Hack category at the March 23-24 at the University of Alabama. Each team member won an Elegoo Super Starter Kit, which includes Arduinos, sensors, motors, and other fun programmable hardware. During CrimsonHacks, more than 250 students participated in a 24-hour hackathon to create technology to solve real world problems. 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 team created 鈥淟eap into Safety鈥 by using the Leap Motion Sensor to track hand movements and integrate them into the Unity game engine, which allows users to interact with objects in a virtual environment in real time. The team demonstrated how their technology could be used in safety simulations for welding and those who work with heavy equipment. The program is affordable, accessible, and easy to setup and use. In the future, the team would like to integrate 鈥淟eap Into Safety鈥 with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ensure more workers can easily use the program for safety simulations. The end result will be more highly trained and safer employees who experience less injuries due to occupational machines. ]]> 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students win Alabama hackathon with cryptocurrency prototype app /news-archive/2018/04/24/crimsonhacks/ Tue, 24 Apr 2018 13:00:51 +0000 /news/?p=70257 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students win Alabama hackathon with cryptocurrency prototype app]]> Two University of Arkansas at Little Rock students are looking to make a name for themselves in the world of hackathons.聽 Michael DiCicco, sophomore information science major from Benton, and Karen Watts, senior information science major from Bryant, took home a big win as first place winners of CrimsonHacks, a Major League Hacking event held April 14-15 at the University of Alabama. DiCicco and Watts, working in conjunction with two students from the University of Alabama and Florida Institute of Technology, beat out 28 other teams for the top prize, a 3D printer, for their project, . They also won the Best Use of Amazon Web Services award, which comes with a $250 Amazon Web Service credit. 鈥淭weety Wallet is a multicurrency cryptocoin wallet,鈥 DiCicco said. 鈥淚t can hold any type of cryptocurrency, but it is configured for Bitcoin, Zcash, Ethereum, and Litecoin.鈥 During a hackathon, teams have 24 hours to develop a prototype app. DiCicco and Watts wanted to build an app that concentrated on data and visualization while a third team member wanted to focus on cryptocurrency. Their interests seemed to be a match made in heaven to combine the three trending topics. DiCicco and Watts utilized skills they have learned while working as student researchers at COSMOS (Collaboratorium for Social Media and Behavioral Studies) 鈥 a research group led by Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair of Information Science, to help build Tweety Wallet. The prototype app retrieves tweets from Twitter with hashtags that correspond to cryptocurrency. The app then runs a sentiment analysis to determine if current views of the digital currency are positive or negative. This information helps users determine if they should buy, sell, or hang on to their digital currency.
Karen Watts (left) and Michael DiCicco (right)

Karen Watts (left) and Michael DiCicco (right). Photo by Ben Krain.

鈥淐ryptocurrency can change in an instant,鈥 Watts said. 鈥淲hether it is positive or negative is going to tell if it is going up or down in price. The sentiment analysis is a faster prediction than stock market prices.鈥 Safety is also of paramount concern to the hackers. In order to log in to the app, a user must enter a password and be verified as the account owner through facial recognition. A text alert is also sent to the user鈥檚 cell phone to tell them that the account has been accessed. Last year, DiCicco and Watts also won the Best Use of Amazon Web Services for their project, 鈥淎trocious Apartments,鈥 a website that allowed apartment hunters to view crimes that occurred within a one-quarter mile radius of an apartment complex and provide a description of the incidents and when they happened. DiCicco and Watts will compete in the HackHLTH competition in Las Vegas in May. This is a bigger competition with bigger stakes. Hacker teams will have 36 hours to build a health-related prototype app, and there are $80,000 worth of prizes and sponsorships up for grab. The Department of Information Science and the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology are providing DiCicco and Watts with $750 each to sponsor their travel to the event. ]]> 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock student hackers win big in Alabama /news-archive/2017/04/13/ua-little-rock-student-hackers-win-big-alabama/ Thu, 13 Apr 2017 15:38:25 +0000 /news/?p=66846 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock student hackers win big in Alabama]]> For 24 hours, the University of Alabama hosted 200 students from the southeast region for the first Major League Hacking event in the state. Michael DiCicco, freshman, and Karen Watts, junior, worked with two students from the University of Alabama to create a website that would make apartment hunting easier and safer for college students in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The execution of their project won the team a $250 Amazon Web Service credit. During the event, the group worked to create an online system that would allow apartment hunters to view crimes that occurred within a one-quarter mile radius of an apartment complex and provide a description of the incidents and when they happened. They made these distinctions using Tuscaloosa’s Open Data Portal, which allowed them access to crime reports in all available areas. In addition, the team gathered information using building permits to include sites of nearby construction as a warning to students who enjoy napping during the day or dislike noise and traffic. According to the group鈥檚 written project, 鈥淭his is a very relevant tool for a college community. Not only does it help students search for apartments that are historically safe, but it allows for more personalized decisions when picking an apartment.鈥 When accessing the group鈥檚 website, Atrocious Apartments, viewers can access heat maps of building permits or crime data to easily view apartments in areas of town that they鈥檙e interested in living. Along with helping students make the best choice of residence, the group also hoped their tool would encourage managers of apartment complexes to improve their standards to better meet the demands of renters. The expectation of their website鈥檚 ability helped establish the next step in the team鈥檚 project, which is to incorporate 311 calls, making students aware of any sanitary complaints within the complex, including trash, rats, and cockroaches. The group also hopes to determine public opinions of each apartment complex using social media keywords, such as great, good, dirty, and terrible to assist students in making residential choices. For more information, visit .]]>