DeVry University grads present their senior projects

BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer

NORTH BRUNSWICK — Graduating seniors from the North Brunswick campus of DeVry University presented their senior projects during an event on June 10.

The senior project course is a six-month class that asks students to identify a project through a process of examining a business or technical problem in the organizational context, develop a set of possible solutions, and implement the best solution.

One such project was formulated by Scott Miller, Sergio Pinheiro and Vladimir Marcellus, who redesigned the website for the Franklin Township Chamber of Commerce.

The team showed the site map for the design of their new website, which has general areas, member-only access, and administrator controls. According to Miller, the men used the three pillars of success to build a model: communication, quality and dedication.

M

arcellus said that they compared different

host sites, eventually settling on Go- Daddy.com, to provide a cheaper service with more services than the chamber was originally using.

They also created pages that would entice new members to join, which would increase membership and thus increase the chamber’s profits. Marcellus said the costbenefit analysis shows over a 400 percent return.

“There’s a lot of potential for this prototype to become even more enhanced,” he said.

Another group whose mission was to enhance services is the team who worked with the Inglis Foundation: students Charles McGee, Rupert Kishun, Sharmin Shabnam, Katalin Rojas and Adriana Rosales, under the direction of professor Michael Faulkner.

The Inglis Foundation in Philadelphia is a community home for the severely disabled that focuses on giving individuals as much independence as possible. Inglis invented the Inglis Drink-Aide, which is basically a water bottle mounted to a wheelchair so that no movement of the upper body is needed to drink.

The team’s task was to develop a better website to market the product to the disabled. They used YouTube, put in closed captioning to the videos, and added a shopping cart section to the site.

They also modified the design of the bottle, creating a brighter label.

Barry Bussell of the Inglis Foundation said the product is usually featured in magazines, since it is sold in 11 countries, but sales have declined lately. The modifications will occur over the next year, with the website changes being implemented immediately.

“This gives the ability to expose our products on a website, so it builds brand awareness,” Roselle said.

The senior project course is similar to a capstone course or master’s-level work at another university, according to Faulkner.

“These are examples of the quality of students we turn out,” he said.

Contact Jennifer Amato at [email protected].