ics491f17

ICS 491 Special Topics: Hawaii Annual Code Challenge

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ICS 491(002) is a special topics course that will focus on the Hawaii Annual Code Challenge (HACC). Professor Philip Johnson is running this course. For this course, you will participate in the HACC hackathon during August and September, then refine your application for the remainder of the semester.

To be qualified to take this course, you should have a passion for working with technology, for solving important problems facing Hawaii, and have the time available to work hard and independently from August to December. Ideally, you would have completed ICS 314 or have equivalent web application development experience, but that’s not required. If you are taking ICS 314 now, or if you just want to use this opportunity to improve your skills, then you should be good. If you are not sure whether this class is right for you, feel free to send me an email.

The course will work like this:

  1. Register for ICS 491(002) for Fall 2017. If you need an override, you can request one from Gerald Lau or Philip Johnson.

  2. Join the ICS 491 Slack Team. Email me (johnson@hawaii.edu) for an invite to the Slack Team.

  3. Register for HACC. The date of the kickoff meeting for Fall 2017 is Saturday, August 26, at the East-West Center, Keoni Auditorium.

  4. Attend the HACC kick-off meeting on August 26. I will be taking attendance!

  5. Form or join a team for HACC. You can join up with fellow students in ICS 491 or with others. It doesn’t matter.

  6. Spend the first month of the semester working hard on HACC. Try to win!

  7. Regardless of whether you win or not, starting in October, you will continue to work on your HACC submission to make it even better. We will have a review at the end of October and at the end of November.

  8. Your final grade for the course will be based upon the system you developed for HACC and how much refinement you were able to make during the remainder of the semester. You don’t have to win to get an A in the course.

There are no fixed meeting times for this course. If you are working with a team in which you are the only ICS 491 member, and the team breaks up at the end of HACC, then you can continue to work on the project by yourself for the remainder of the semester.

If it makes more sense for you to take this class as ICS 499 independent study, that can be arranged. Discuss this with Gerald first.