WebNews                                                    May 22, 2014 |  Vol 17, Issue 6
CONGRATS '14 GRADUATES
Congratulations and Good Luck to our Student Interns and Graduate Assistants 
 
CTG would like to thank all our University at Albany student interns and graduate assistants who worked with us this past academic year; they truly made outstanding contributions to our work. For those who graduated this past weekend (pictured below), we wish them best of luck in their future careers!
 
For an overview of their work at CTG this past semester,
click here.
 
 
Tara Hariprasad
BA, College of Arts and Sciences 
 
 
Ping Li
Information Science MS, College of Computing and Information 
 
 
Daniel McKenna
BS, College of Computing and Information 
 
 
Jonathon Stricoff
BA, School of Business 
 
 
Greg Venech
BS, College of Computing and Information   

 

 
MPA, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy   

 

SPRING 2014 STUDENT PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Four University at Albany students - one graduate and three senior undergraduates - served as interns on a data visualization project at CTG during the Spring 2014 semester. 

 

Working under the guidance of Derek Werthmuller, CTG Director of Technology Innovation and Services and Jim Costello, CTG Web Application Developer, the students used sample reports and datasets provided by the MTA to develop more usable visualizations that provided at-a-glance comparisons across yearly, monthly and daily time periods to help identify trends and make projections. 

 

The project culminated in a presentation by the students to the MTA staff at their corporate office in New York City.  

 

Read full article>>

 

  

UAlbany Student Intern Kareem Ullah's Project on Innovative Visualization, Mapping, and Database Tools 

  

During the Spring 2014 Semester, Kareem Ullah, a UAlbany student majoring in Information Science with a minor in Computer Science, worked with Derek Werthmuller, CTG Director of Technology Innovation and Services, on innovative visualization, mapping, and database tools. 


The focus of the semester-long project was to help users understand large and complex municipal data sets, available on the Open New York open data portal. From geocoding locations onto web-based maps to employing graph databases to highlight relationships among millions of discrete data elements, Kareem's efforts were directed toward the common goal of drawing clarity and transparency out of difficult data. 

 

 

MPA Students Focus on Potential of NYS Log Data 

As part of Theresa Pardo's Rockefeller College Spring PAD 650: Building a Case for IT Investments in the Public Sector class, graduate students facilitated a two-hour workshop to examine the value of novel uses of the vast amounts of log data produced by the state.

During the interactive workshop, the MPA students used CTG's public value framework to lead discussion examining the potential of log data in the form of increased system performance, increased efficiency,and effectiveness of the work force, and swifter responses to cyber security breaches, among others. The results of this workshop will help lay the foundation for examination of the potential of this data and emerging big data tools and techniques to enhance state operations. As a final class project, the students are preparing a briefing document.   

 

 
UPCOMING EVENT
Second Annual National Day of Civic Hacking 

May 31, 2014 | 10 am-5 pm

University at Albany, 
New Business Building 209
 

The National Day of Civic Hacking is an opportunity for citizens, software developers, technologists, and entrepreneurs to use publically available data and technology to tackle civic or social challenges such as coordination of homeless shelters, or access to fresh, local, affordable food. 

 

Participants at the Albany event are encouraged to use open data like the data found on New York State's open data portal (www.data.ny.gov). The event is being sponsored by the New York State Office of Information Technology Services, the University at Albany, NYInnovates, and Kitware. 

 

Find out how to register>>