Google Developers University Consortium is Launched!

We are pleased to announce that the Google Developers University Consortium has finally launched (out of private beta) to the public at our annual Google I/O conference in San Francisco. Feel free to share this with all of your colleagues in academia. Also keep an eye out for our official announcement at the Google Developers Blog along with the many others all this week!

We are also launching another site called the Google Developers Academy. When learning how to code against APIs from Google, it's not always easiest to learn directly from the traditional user documentation. The Academy aims to help users by providing lesson-based curriculum. A single 15-20 lesson should impart one specific skill to a reader, and a set of lessons constitutes a "class," much like students attending a 1-hour lecture by a professor. These course materials are open-licensed, and we encourage you, your colleagues, vocational institutions, and even corporate training companies can build their own custom courses from this base material.

As far as next steps for the Consortium are concerned, with the influx of new members and the rest of you returning from the summer, I'm hoping that we can continue to create a vibrant place for discussion and exchange of ideas! In addition to course materials, you're also welcome to share any research projects, recently published papers that you've been working on. I look forward to your continued participation as we open up a whole new chapter in the Consortium!

Creative Applications for Mobile Devices

'Creative Applications for Mobile Devices' is described at: http://www.eecg.utoronto.ca/~jayar/ece1778/

The interesting thing about this course is that it is open to *all* graduate students in *all* disciplines at the University of Toronto.  The idea is to bring people from other disciplines together with programmers, and to 'create' on this new canvas that is a smartphone.  This will be the second time the course has been offered.  Last year's effort had 50 graduate students, and 22 projects in interesting application areas that included:  physiotherapy, medicine, noise-mapping, marketing, and many more.  You can see the complete reports of those projects here: http://www.eecg.utoronto.ca/~jayar/ece1778.2011/projects-videos-and-reports.html

Also, there was an article written about the course here:  http://www.news.utoronto.ca/mobile-apps-course-hit-u-t

posted by Jonathan Rose

ASU Introduction to Information Assurance

ASU has been working on security issues on Google TV and Droid phones through a course CSE 465: Introduction to Information Assurance. Also, this class project is entitled with research activities in SEFCOM (http://sefcom.asu.edu) at Arizona State University.

posted by Gail-Joon Ahn

Students’ mood chart application hits the App Store

Michael Murray, a member of the Class of 2011 and Wei Zhang, a graduate student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, developed the mood chart application in a smartphone programming course for undergraduates at the University of Notre Dame. Murray and Zhang developed the application in cooperation with The Cheryl T. Herman Foundation, which is dedicated to assisting individuals who suffer from mood disorders.

In the “Mobile Application Development” course, which is co-taught by faculty members Patrick Flynn and Christian Poellabauer and teaching fellow Christopher Miller of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, students develop a variety of applications for mobile devices such as Android phones, iPhones and iPads. The goal is to expose talented undergraduates to hands-on experience with state-of-art technologies, allowing them to develop mobile solutions in such areas as healthcare, social networks, biometrics and education. Students work closely with industry collaborators to ensure that the developed applications meet practical needs. In addition to developing applied engineering and computing tools, students also practice their skills in project management, oral and written communication, and team work, thereby preparing them for careers in wireless networks and mobile systems.

Murray and Zhang worked with the Herman Foundation to take the best of current mood charting tolls and added powerful features so individuals may track when they took their medication and how their daily activities may impact their disorder. Features such as a daily medical alert sends users a text message reminding them when to take their medicine and the proper dosage and a Buddy Alert sends automatic messages to clinicians or family members when the charting indicates potential problems.

“This project is a concrete example of how mobile technology can be used to improve the health and wellbeing of users by, for example, encouraging healthy habits, increasing the adherence to medical regimens, and taking advantage of social support networks and media,” Flynn and Poellabauer said.

The Cheryl T. Herman Charitable Trust was established in 2006 in memory of Cheryl T. Herman to support continued progress in understanding and treating mood disorders through research and under the direction of her physician, John Zajecka. The trust actively funds research in areas such as treatment resistant depression, the expansion of the current state approach to diagnosis, treatment and expanding educational endeavors of bipolar disorder and related illnesses. The work of the foundation is to achieve Cheryl’s wish to allow others to go through life without the unnecessary suffering of a mood disorder and to experience the same passion for life that she exemplified.

Link to application on iTunes

More information on The Cheryl T. Herman Foundation is available online at cheryltherman.org.

posted by Christian Poellabauer