Here is a description of some of the projects in which I was involved while I was at Oregon State. Only the thesis and senior project were requirements for graduation. The rest were extracurricular activities.
Senior Thesis–As part of my requirements for graduating from the Honors College, I had to write a thesis. Since I had been working on the UHC web site for a long time and had learned to do web design and standard web practices from the work, it leant itself easily towards a thesis topic. I ended up writing a lengthy thesis in just about 10 weeks. You can view the text in the writing section of my projects.
Book on Ethics –During Spring term 2003, I took an honors class called Ethics in Computer Science. Professor M.J. Quinn said that he was teaching the class to help him write a book on the topic. After getting my grade in the class, I asked if I could get involved in the book. I reviewed and edited his chapters as he gave them to me, and I wrote review and discussion questions after each chapter. This has been a fun project, and I’ve drawn on a lot of knowledge I’ve been gaining over the past few years. Plus, I now have my name in a book!Ethics for the Information Age, Michael J. Quinn
Senior Project –The requirements for a degree in Computer Engineering include a senior project. I have teamed up with three other guys in my house to create a portable storage device. This device is a solution for traveling people who own digital cameras. When the compact flash card gets full, they have no options but to delete pictures or get more expensive flash cards. Our device will allow a user to plug a flash card into it. It will then copy the pictures off the flash card and onto an internal hard drive. Then it clears the card, making it reusable again. When the user is done, they can hook the device up to any computer with a USB port and our device will look like a regular hard drive. So far I am the webmaster (http://classes.engr.oregonstate.edu/eecs/fall2003/ece441/groups/g15/ ), I’ve written the user interface, I’m in charge of interfacing with the hard drive and flash card, and I’m doing a lot of the technical writing.
Voice of Engineering–During the summer before my senior year the College of Engineering significantly and unfairly raised the CoE resource fee by nearly 300%. This dramatic increase angered many people. I became part of a group of students that met with the Dean and petitioned for the removal or reduction of the fee. Our only success was some money that went towards grants for people who applied for them, and the promise of more student involvement in CoE decisions.
Buxton Hall Council–As Webmaster of Buxton Hall Council, I had to keep the web site up to date. This is a lot of work, but I think I’ve done a really good job with the site.
McNary Hall Council–As President of McNary Hall Council, I had a lot of duties and responsibilities, including what seemed like infinite meetings and programs. I spent way too many hours on hall council stuff. There was a web page associated with it, but with the new webmaster my year of work disappeared.
NRHH–The National Residence Hall Honorary is a service organization dedicated to recognizing outstanding people in the residence halls. I was the webmaster, and here is the page: Beaver Chapter of NRHH As a member of this group, I attended meetings, took part in our events, and even planned some. One of my biggest projects was the Beaver Leaders Leadership Conference. For this, I did the packet. This ~16 page document had the schedule, descriptions of the seminars, a section for notes, a section describing the conference and NRHH, and some articles and suggestions for leadership. I applied the superhero theme to the whole packet, and printed off over 150 copies on a budget of zero dollars. At the conference itself I presented to a group how to run an efficient meeting, running the presentation as if it was a meeting, and drawing on my experience as Hall Council President the year before.
RHA–RHA stands for Residence Hall Association, the group of people who organize all the residence halls and bring them all together, just as the federal government regulates and presides over state governments. I have been involved with them through hall council.