- University News Archive - 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock /news-archive/tag/michael-dicicco/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Thu, 11 Oct 2018 13:00:21 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students reach hackathon finals /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.  ]]> 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 .]]>