Apr 24, 2018
By Victoria Grdina
Last Thursday, senior students enrolled in Senior Design and Design Studio through the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management were honored at a special evening ceremony held in the Talon Room in downtown Lincoln.
All Senior Design and Design Studio students were invited to enjoy free dinner as several students were recognized for their hard work in the course over the last year.
Congratulations to all our winners! Here is the complete list of award nominees and recipients:
Gold Award
Recognizing the runner-up for highest performing team in terms of product produced, sponsor feedback, and overall team dynamics
Senior Design Nominees:
· CSE Cohen
· Erudite
· NDOT The Portal
· Sensi-Plate
· UNL Animal Science
· WEX Health
Senior Design Winner: Erudite
Winning team members: Ronnie Gallagher, Jacob Johnson, Dat X. Nguyen, Christopher Lundquist, Scott Davis
“This team has been performing at a professional level all year. They are creative, innovative and responsive. They are also diverse in talent. They have developed new artwork for their sponsor and suggested innovations to their game by adding learning. They have done an excellent job of documentation and have worked with ITS to release their game to the app store. They have also evaluated performance by running stress tests and have helped their client determine the required hardware to transition the project. Overall – this is an exceptional team.”
Design Studio Nominees:
· Fiserv
· HATCX
· Hudl
· Microsoft Dynamics
· Water for Food
Design Studio Winner: HATCX
Winning team members: Bridget Bailey, Jessee Zhang, Mary Clare Rogers, Sarah Kenny, Wyatt Osborn, Jacob Rehwoldt, Emma Kate Stapp
“It was initially unclear if Design Studio should have taken this project. The team hadn’t had machine learning or even probability and statistics, and the client didn’t have the data. The team took the initiative, doubled-down, communicated well, pulled together, put in long hours, and anything else needed to be successful. This team taught themselves machine learning and data analytics before those topics were even covered in class. The sponsor is very happy with both the product produced and the experience working with the team.”
Platinum Award
Recognizing the highest performing team in terms of product produced, sponsor feedback, and overall team dynamics
Senior Design Nominees:
· CSE Cohen
· Erudite
· NDOT The Portal
· Sensi-Plate
· UNL Animal Science
· WEX Health
Senior Design Winner: Sensi-Plate
Winning team members: Bryce Andersen, Nina Hao, Skyler Davis, Sam Conner, Lexi Bu
“This was the most difficult project I managed throughout the year. I think that product design of this type, with optimization of the physical 3D printed artifacts, is highly non-conventional for our SD. The team faced also a sponsor at times very difficult and demanding (sometimes the requests were even quite unreasonable or unjustified, especially at the beginning). Several times the team had also to suffer being blamed for different things, and they were always extremely professional and patient. The product is coming along very well, and I believe they are even exceeding the expectations of the sponsor. This is the best and most challenged team I had this year.”
Design Studio Nominees:
· Fiserv
· HATCX
· Hudl
· Microsoft Dynamics
· Water for Food
Design Studio Winner: Water for Food
Winning team members: Bryce Andersen, Nina Hao, Skyler Davis, Sam Conner, Lexi Bu
Intern of the Year Award
Outstanding unpaid individual contribution to a project/team
Nominees:
· Luke Bogus, Hudl
· Lexie Karkazis, Mutual of Omaha
· Lara Quiring, Lincoln Public Schools
Winner: Lexie Karkazis, Mutual of Omaha
“Lexie has made significant contributions to the Mutual team’s technical product, helping that team deliver on stretch goals they likely wouldn’t otherwise have been able to reach. She has a great attitude about contributing, and has fit in well with the team.”
Rock Star Award
Individual recognition of outstanding work leading and contributing to the overall final product and growth of their team members
Senior Design Nominees:
· Sam Conner, NU Sensi-Plate
· Kyle Conway, Westside Schools
· Dillon Dick, UNL Animal Science
· Mustafa Hasan, TeamMates of Lincoln
· Mark Hernandez, CSE Cohen
· Christian Jungck, NDOT The Portal
· Dat V. Nguyen, CSE Bourke
· William Quade, CSE Duncan
Senior Design Winners:
· Mark Hernandez, CSE Cohen
“Mark is always punctual, goes above and beyond on his tasks, and is very knowledgeable about the most complex parts of our project. Without him as development manager, our project would not be where it is, he designed the test suite, organized the GitHub, and designed/built the most complex parts of our project. He regularly works very hard and I believe he should get some recognition.”
· Dat V. Nguyen, CSE Bourke
“Dat was essential for the development of the project by addressing the knowledge and technique gaps. Accountable to the whole team for the release meetings, and helped cover the team members who had difficulties.”
· William Quade, CSE Duncan
“Despite the team having numerous issues with the project, William was the main engine of the team from the hardware development perspective. He spent his resources as well (home supplies) to guarantee the success of the project. His hardware development is the main product of the overall team, and although I haven’t interviewed the sponsor about him, I observed how William was the star of each meeting, despite not being the main presenter. I believe William deserves an individual award.”
Design Studio Nominees:
· Mary Candela, Microsoft Dynamics
· Jared Frenzel, Realm Five
· Libby Gentry, Hudl
· Henry Recker, Buckle
· Zach Warneke, CSG International
· Jessee Zhang, HATCX
Design Studio Winners:
· Mary Candela, Microsoft Dynamics
“Mary Candela has done an excellent job as a squad lead on the Microsoft Dynamics team. The project the team was given was very vague and the team received very little support in terms of requirements gathering. Mary has not only led her team through an exceptionally successful project, but to fully define the specification for the application that she and her team built. Mary’s management style is very mature. She intentionally configures the team’s work such that each team member gets to do work that makes them feel accomplished and invigorated. Mary is always thinking five steps ahead in the process – not only worrying about the present release, or even the next release, but two and three releases ahead. Mary is a rock star. Full stop.”
· Jared Frenzel, Realm Five
“Although I know these awards have typically gone to seniors in the past, I hope you'll consider nominating him. I believe Jared deserves the award due to his combination of technical skills and dedication to our team. He consistently finishes tasks well before when we've scheduled them and regularly puts in 20+ hours/week to make sure our team delivers the best product we can. Also, he was the one who came up with the concept behind how all of our analytics work (the concept Realm Five is now trying to patent), along with the framework for how all information is passed throughout the analytics system. I really do believe that without Jared, our project would have taken a big turn for the worse after being forced to change technology and scope last semester, and that much of our success can be credited to him.”
· Libby Gentry, Hudl
“Libby has gone above and beyond what I think a DM should have to do, both in hours and effort and communication. Trying to get our code into production, she put in a lot of hours and had to go in early so she could work with Hudl employees while they were in. She has also been working on UI tests which are things some teams in Hudl don’t have to do, but she has accomplished that task even though it is just being rolled out. And I can give hundreds of more examples as well.”
Hall of Fame Award
A ‘lifetime’ achievement award in Design Studio, recognizing two years of Rock Star effort
Winner: Daric Teske, Water for Food
“A Rock Star last year, Daric has continued to do amazing work on the Water for Food project this year. Multi-year projects are traditionally challenging, but Water for Food has been one of the most successful projects this year, and that is in no small part due to Daric’s leadership on that team. He has resisted the urge to ride out his senior year, and continues to contribute at a high level not only technically but also in team leadership.”
Aluminum Award
Created, in true Raikes School fashion, to recognize the team that had a few hurdles to overcome but was able to learn and find humor in their less-than-smooth experience
Winner: Microsoft Dynamics
Winning Team Members: Mary Candela, Dylan Gray, Jack Johnson, Jake Lindvall, Andrew Schmidt