Update 3/26/17 (Conference debriefing)

Even though we had to take time from developing the system, the trip was a success and we learned so much from attending the conference! The trip allowed us to take a much-needed break and visit the city of Austin, Texas. We began our trip by leaving Socorro on Monday (3/6/17) morning. We arrived at our hotel around 10pm.

On Tuesday we began our day by visiting the County Line restaurant, where we ate our food next to the creek. We then headed to the Sheraton hotel so we could validate our registration and get our conference badges. We spent most of Tuesday attending presentations and learning about the interesting research that was being done by others. After attending presentations we decided to explore downtown Austin, where we stopped by the famous Voodoo Doughnut donut shop. Finally, we returned to the hotel so that we could complete homework that was due that night. 

Our haul from the donut shop

The view while we enjoyed our lunch

With our presentation being Wednesday afternoon, the day up until that point was a blur of preparation and practice. We delivered our presentation successfully and everything went according to plan. There were some questions and valuable feedback from the audience that will be used to improve our system. Sharing a time slot, we had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Jane Hunter and learning about her High Possibility Classrooms. We left Austin on Thursday morning and concluded our trip by celebrating with burgers from the Owl Cafe.

Nico (left), Hugo (right), and myself preparing for our presentation

Our research group delivering our presentation

NMT CREU '16-'17 group at SITE 2017

I'd like to thank the Collaborative Research Experiences for Undergraduates (CREU) program for funding our travel and allowing me to explore this amazing opportunity! I'd also like to thank Dr. Kuo for providing some of the images used in this post.

--Eugene

Update 3/19/17

Work accomplished:
We have returned from our conference trip. There have been some modification to the application user interface (screenshots to come). I have began writing a script that will help us stress test our server. This load testing is important so that we know how the system will behave in a real-world scenario.

Goal:
Over the next week I will finish the script and begin testing our server. I will also write a debriefing for our conference trip.

Outcome:
I have learned a lot from this conference trip. Since this was the first research conference I have ever attended, I learned what it is like to participate in a professional conference and interact with other researchers.

-- Eugene

Update 3/12/17

Spring break

Update 3/5/17

We are in the final stages of preparation for the SITE 2017 conference in Austin, Texas! Come say hello and join us for our presentation!

-- Nico, Hugo, and Eugene