It has long established a reputation as AUN's homegrown tech innovation and creativity showpiece, so the return of the Senior Design Poster Presentation under the auspices of the School of Information Technology & Computing (SITC) was yet another confirmation that the present administration is leaving no stone unturned in restoring AUN students' leadership in the field of ICT.
The poster announcing the 12th edition of the tech show, which is organized every semester, raised expectations:
“Poster presentations are an opportunity for senior students to present and partially defend their works to the general public and gain some constructive feedback as they solve an important issue by the end of the exercise. Our computer majors will develop and demonstrate their ability to apply scientific and engineering principles to solve practical problems in computing, software engineering, IT systems, and business process re-engineering.”
In the end, the presentation met the expectation of key SITC faculty and visitors. There were 19 Senior Projects on display; 14 were team projects, while five were individual projects covering the three SITC majors – Computer Science, Information Systems, and Software Engineering.
Assistant Professor of Information Systems, Dr. Chidi Ononiwu, described the exhibition as impressive. "The standard is much higher. This is certainly an improvement".
VP for Student Life and Dean of Students Affairs, Dean Byron Bullock, speaking in his personal capacity, showered praises on the students and the quality of their work. "The works presented here are by far the most incredible display of craft that I have seen in the 12 years that this has been going on. You are addressing all types of societal issues that needs to addressed in this country.”
Other faculty members and students who shared their views on the poster presentation also commended the quality of work on display and the organization.
President Margee Ensign, in her message, congratulated the SITC seniors for their hard work, sacrifice and tenacity. "This also represents the incredible and dynamic faculty members that we have who support them and brought them to this point of exceptional work to be presented to us today."
The Dean of SITC, Professor Matthias Fonkam, was represented by Assistant Prof. George Thandekkattu who thanked President Ensign and other senior management for their support.
"The Senior Project represents a critical component of the student's major as it provides that one unique opportunity for a student to identify a specific area of interest of their major where they would like to further deepen their knowledge by pulling together what they have learned so far to solve an important problem, build important skills in the area in preparation for their future career, and make some contribution to the field.
“The overarching purpose is an opportunity to provide constructive feedback that the students can use to improve the quality of their final results and reports, which will be defended and shelved in the library's archives. Several of these projects will also result in actual software systems that hopefully will be put to daily use. It is expected that by this stage in the game, the students have clarity of their projects, project requirements, and have mapped out a design or solution path they will employ to effect a quality solution.”
Reported by Bitwul Dashe