/news-archive/tag/hackathon/ 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 /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. ]]> /news-archive/2019/03/13/watts-digital-innovation-manager-at-university-of-arkansas-system-division-of-agriculture/ Wed, 13 Mar 2019 13:20:49 +0000 /news/?p=73683 ... Watts lands new position as first digital and innovation manager at University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture]]> A University of Arkansas at Little Rock graduate student will pair innovative ideas with the latest technology in her new role as the 鈥檚 first digital and innovation manager.聽 Karen Watts, a graduate student in information science, was hired for the full-time position after interning with the Information Technology unit for the past 18 months. 鈥淣o other extension office has this position. We are setting a trend,鈥� Watts said. 鈥淚 wanted to help agents and producers and make a difference in their lives.鈥� Watts graduated from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock with a Bachelor of Science degree in information science as well as a graduate certificate in data science in December 2018. In her new role, she will look at new and emerging technologies and how they can be implemented with Division of Agriculture applications. 鈥淚 love learning about emerging technologies and I get to learn the newest technologies every day,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his job is like a hackathon. I look to see what works, develop a proof of concept, and prototype the new technology for us. It鈥檚 going to put us ahead in innovation.鈥� Sam Boyster, chief operating officer for the Cooperative Extension Service, said he was looking forward to seeing how Watts will integrate emerging technologies into the division鈥檚 daily mission. 鈥淲e hear a lot about blockchain, AI (artificial intelligence), and machine learning,鈥� Boyster said. 鈥淭his position will allow us to stay abreast of these innovations and their application across agriculture, as well as our other supported program areas. The goal is to see how we can leverage these technologies to the advantage of Arkansas producers and help us educate our agents and clientele in these areas.鈥� The Division of Agriculture conducts research through its Agricultural Experiment Station and transfers discoveries to the public through the Cooperative Extension Service. At a recent conference, Watts saw researchers using AI in rice genome work. 鈥淎rtificial intelligence isn鈥檛 the future,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the present.鈥� Watts presented a litany of potential avenues to put agriculture and technology together, including blockchain; advanced climate software using machine learning to do predictive analysis; nano trackers and sensors; chatbots and other virtual assistants; data mining and data visualization; and the new possibilities offered by 5G mobile platforms. She will also continue her work in application development, including e-commerce and business intelligence and 鈥渆ducating in the use of the new technologies and also pursuing and obtaining grants.鈥� After completing her master鈥檚 degree in December, Watts plans to pursue a Ph.D. in computer and information science at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, where she will research strategies to fight disinformation campaigns online using blockchain technology with the Collaboratorium of Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS), where she works as a research assistant. The research group is led by Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair and distinguished professor in the Department of Information Science. While an undergraduate at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, Watts traveled the country competing in hackathons 鈥� events in which coders compete or collaborate to create usable software within a limited time. This is another concept she鈥檚 bringing to the Division of Agriculture. She helped develop RockCity Hacks, the first hackathon designed for grades 9-12, where all the case uses will be ag-based.]]> /news-archive/2018/12/14/karen-watts-grad/ Fri, 14 Dec 2018 14:10:58 +0000 /news/?p=72973 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock grad is taking the Information Technology world by storm]]> As a sophomore information science major at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2010, Karen Watts of Bryant faced a difficult choice.聽 Watts is a single mother of two children with special needs, and the youngest, Gabe, now 11, was in and out of the hospital with health issues. 鈥淚 wanted to stay in school, but I couldn鈥檛 do both,” Watts said. “I had to leave after my first year at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. I got my cosmetology license, so I could work around my boys鈥� appointments and schedules.鈥� Inspired to help other families, Watts opened Artistik Salon, which catered toward children and adults with special needs. The business was even recognized by local broadcast station with a Pay It Forward Award. 鈥淚 had people travel from all over the state because they couldn鈥檛 go anywhere else to have their children鈥檚 hair cut,鈥� Watts said. 鈥淎 lot of the children have sensory issues, so it could easily be too loud or crowded, so I catered to each child that came in. It was really hard to close in 2017, but I really wanted to finish my degree. It was a really hard decision since I helped a lot of kids.鈥� Watts returned to 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock in 2016 and was accepted into the Accelerated BS to MS program, enabling her to earn a bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degree in five years. In addition, Watts took four graduate classes as a senior. When she graduates from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock on Dec. 15, she will earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Science as well as a Graduate Certificate in Data Science. At 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, she is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, an ambassador for the College of Engineering and Information Technology, and a research assistant with the Collaboratorium of Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS), a research group led by Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair and distinguished professor in the Department of Information Science. She credits Agarwal, Dr. Elizabeth Pierce, chair of the Department of Information Science, and all the information science professors with helping her succeed. 鈥淒r. Elizabeth Pierce and Dr. Nitin Agarwal are my mentors, but every professor I鈥檝e had in information science has been wonderful and supportive. Dr. Pierce supported me going to different hackathons to gain skills and network. It鈥檚 been great to continue my research with Dr. Agarwal at COSMOS. It鈥檚 a big change from working at a salon.鈥� As part of her burgeoning hackathon career, Watts and her teammate, Michael DiCicco, beat out 28 other teams as the first place winner of CrimsonHacks in April for their multicurrency cryptocoin wallet called 鈥淭weety Wallet.鈥� 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. In October, she also won the J.B. Hunt Use Case Award at the 糖心Vlog传媒 Blockchain Hackathon along with DiCicco and Brenda Nyangweso. Watts and her team, sudoIntellectual, created an electronic bill of lading system for J.B. Hunt that they named 鈥淭ruck Hunt.鈥� That led the team to travel to J.B. Hunt鈥檚 corporate headquarters in Lowell, Arkansas, where they made a presentation to the company鈥檚 executives. Watts has received a promising job offer from the company, which would allow her to work with emerging technologies. 鈥淚 stay busy, and I don鈥檛 sleep a lot,鈥� Watts said of her hectic schedule. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very important for my kids, Blakely, 12, and Gabe, 11. They are my life. Everything I have done is for them. I always knew I wanted to come back and finish my degree. The time came, and I was able to, and I hit the ground running. I鈥檓 the first woman in my family to get a college degree.鈥� Watts has also interned at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service for over a year, where she has completed some innovative information technology projects. She collaborated with her boss, Amy Cole, to develop the Arkansas Extension chatbot platform, VeggieBot, which is likely the first extension chatbot developed in the U.S. A chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate conversation with people. In the case of VeggieBot, the chatbot will answer basic questions about gardening, which will free up time for the employees and provide a self-service channel that can respond at any time. Additionally, Watts created a new internal employee website. She also assisted in developing a new web app, replacing an outdated system, that assists Arkansas rice producers in managing their rice crops for a senior capstone project. She presented this project at the College of Engineering and Information Technology Open House in April and received the Mainstream Technologies Professional Presentation Award. After completing her master鈥檚 degree in December 2019, Watts plans to earn a Ph.D. in computer and information science at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, where she will research strategies to fight disinformation campaigns online using blockchain technology with COSMOS. 鈥溙切腣log传媒 Little Rock has given me opportunities to be involved in a research group that opened a whole lot of new doors and helped me decide on my master鈥檚 degree,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he hackathons were another opportunity I wouldn鈥檛 have had outside 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. I don鈥檛 know of any other schools that offer the 4+1 program where I could earn my bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees in five years and work on my graduate certificate during my senior year. The professors here are incredible and full of knowledge.鈥�]]> /news-archive/2018/10/11/hackathon-finals/ Thu, 11 Oct 2018 13:00:21 +0000 /news/?p=72175 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students reach hackathon finals]]> University of Arkansas at Little Rock student teams took two of the nine final spots at the 糖心Vlog传媒 BlockChain Hackathon at the University of Arkansas held Sept. 28-29. The hackathon featured 21 teams from Arkansas colleges and universities and was sponsored by nine large businesses such as IBM, Tyson, Heifer International, and J.B. Hunt, who provided challenges focused on using BlockChain technology for teams to present during the competition. Each of the nine sponsors chose a team to advance to the finals where they presented their results against the winners of other challenges. 鈥淏lockChain refers to a distributed database platform that allows for the secure processing and management of transactions across a network,鈥� explained Dr. Liz Pierce, chair of 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 Department of Information Science. 鈥淚t is the technology behind BitCoin and is also of great interest to companies like J.B. Hunt and Walmart who want to be able to track transactions across many different producers and suppliers.鈥� Two 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock teams, representing J.B. Hunt and ArcBest, each won in their challenges and presented their developments in the finals. All of 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 competitors were undergraduates with little to no prior BlockChain experience or knowledge, while most of their competition came from graduate students from the University of Arkansas鈥� BlockChain Center of Excellence. Students Karen Watts, Michael DiCicco, and Brenda Nyangweso won J.B. Hunt鈥檚 challenge and went on to represent them in the finals, along with Aaron David, Brock Butler, Hunter Wright, Ian Thompson, and Sunny Singh from the ArcBest team. An additional 25 more 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students also took part in the competition: Thomas Emmerling, Naveed Siddiqui, Brenda Chepkorir, Yinqi Chen, Ryan Moore, Peter Israsena, Hengchang Liao, Nicholas Stewart, Zhenlin Jin, Kyle Hooks, Zachary Long, Bushra Sajid, Saba Khalid, Christopher Lewis, Brady Moore, Moteet Bakeman, Mughal Minhaj Uddin, Lucas Rayburn, Hitaxiben Patel, Donovan Valestin, Shibani Lal, Richard Young, Malik El-Amin, Christian Aqui, and Kristen Stewart. Butler, a junior information science major from Hot Springs, and his team created a driver registration system for ArcBest with the goal of improving driver retention. 鈥�For the use case, we chose to create a system that would bring in information from government, law enforcement, and independent company databases and api’s. We would store the information within ledgers that would be interconnected through a BlockChain, and that chain of ledgers would be sorted and rated by a neural network,鈥� Butler said. 鈥淎 neural network is basically a self-improving algorithm that would learn and adapt like the human brain. Our neural network would be able to pull up ledgers about 聽and assign ratings towards the drivers within a mobile app that both drivers and employers could use. The mobile app would allow drivers to see in real-time how well they’re performing and it could become a tool for them to use when looking for a job, and because they could see how they’re doing in their current position.鈥� Watts, a senior information science major from Bryant, and her team, sudoIntellectual, created an electronic bill of lading system for J.B. Hunt that they named 鈥淭ruck Hunt.鈥� 鈥�How does Truck Hunt work? When a carrier arrives at the shipper, as pallets are loaded into the truck, RFID or smart pallets can track what is loaded in the truck. Then the carrier gives a tablet to the shipper that then uses facial recognition to cryptographically sign the bill of lading. As the carrier goes from point A to point B, there are sensors in the truck that collect the temperature data, GPS, and acceleration,鈥� Watts said. 鈥淥nce the carrier arrives at the receiver, the truck is unloaded and the receiver verifies that everything was arrived in order and they both cryptographically sign the bill of lading. At the point the pdf is finalized and the hash is stored on the blockchain. If there is a dispute then the data from the sensors is also stored on the BlockChain.鈥� further explained Watts, who鈥檚 team has since been invited to present their project to J.B. Hunt鈥檚 executive committee. Watts鈥� teammate Michael DiCicco, a junior information science major from Benton, credits 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock with providing him with the opportunity to travel, network, and compete at hackathons across the country. 鈥淚鈥檝e enjoyed getting to travel so much, and I鈥檝e gotten to go everywhere from Las Vegas to Alabama,鈥� DiCicco said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also helped me become a better communicator, and I always come back with good takeaways.鈥� Pierce and the rest of 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 information science faculty could not be more pleased with their students鈥� performance. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 amazing that they went in and did so well against competitors with more experience than them, I鈥檓 always looking forward to what they鈥檒l show us next!鈥� she said. Eight 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students reached the hackathon’s finals, including (from L to R): Ian Thompson, Michael DiCicco, Karen Watts, Brock Butler, Aaron David, and Hunter Wright.  ]]>