{"id":15628,"date":"2023-10-20T12:48:15","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/?p=15628"},"modified":"2023-10-20T13:27:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T17:27:38","slug":"elizabethtown-college-computer-science-students-providing-inventory-solution-to-on-campus-food-pantry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2023\/10\/20\/elizabethtown-college-computer-science-students-providing-inventory-solution-to-on-campus-food-pantry\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabethtown College Computer Science Students Providing Inventory Solution to On-Campus Food Pantry"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of Elizabethtown College students enrolled in Information Systems Lecturer Nancy Reddig\u2019s Computer Science (CS) 341 Software Engineering class are working on an innovative service project to create an upgraded inventory system for the College\u2019s on-campus food pantry, the Blue Jay Pantry.<\/p>\n

In fall 2022, a group of students enrolled in Reddig\u2019s course met with Elizabethtown College\u2019s Director of the Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) Javita Thompson to learn about the data needs for the Blue Jay Pantry. Students then used their coding skills to develop a database for food inventory that the Pantry could utilize.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great example of students in Computer Science working closely with faculty to use the specialized technical skills they are developing in their coursework to improve the lives of others,\u201d Dean of the School of Engineering and Computer Science Sara Atwood said. \u201cThe project is preparing students for post-graduation production-level, team-based software development while positively impacting a real-world client with authentic needs.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The College was recently designated<\/a> as a Hunger-Free Campus by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, in part because of its work to provide students in need with an accessible food pantry.<\/p>\n

Students Alex Fox \u201924 and Matthew Sutton \u201924 carried the project into the spring 2023 semester\u2019s CS 409, Advanced Database Systems course, cleaning code to make the software more efficient.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very cool feeling to create something that will eventually be implemented into the College\u2019s system,\u201d Fox said. \u201cIt is a privilege to see our work help the campus community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This past summer, Reddig worked to create a more mobile-friendly design. The original project is now being reworked by Reddig\u2019s students to create a usable website for all food pantries.<\/p>\n

Current students in Reddig\u2019s class are working to create customizable features within the website, and include standard features like inventory, contacts, and logins. They\u2019re also sorting out bugs with handheld scanners, to be used when logging products. The goal is to create a scannable system for students to check out items, instead of manually logging items on paper or an online form.<\/p>\n

Students hope to have the system in place at the Blue Jay Pantry before the end of the fall 2023 semester. Currently, the pantry utilizes a spreadsheet, but Thompson said it\u2019s difficult to gauge what the most popular items are. This project will help CCCE gather donations that are most useful to students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are presented with so many opportunities to connect service across departments and disciplines at Etown,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cI\u2019m so pleased the School of Engineering and Computer Science has partnered with CCCE to promote community-based learning opportunities and community engagement with nonprofit organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sample food pantry is set up in the Computer Science Lounge, located in Esbenshade Hall, so students can test their project from a hands-on approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get students to truly understand, you need to immerse them in the process,\u201d Reddig said. \u201cI am so proud of our 2022 class for completing a system to help people on the campus and I\u2019m excited that the 2023 class is continuing to take this next system for the food pantry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of Elizabethtown College students enrolled in Information Systems Lecturer Nancy Reddig\u2019s Computer Science (CS) 341 Software Engineering class are working on an innovative service project to create an upgraded inventory system for the College\u2019s on-campus food pantry, the Blue Jay Pantry. In fall 2022, a group of students enrolled in Reddig\u2019s course met […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":15640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1338,7],"tags":[2002,2004,2006,1130,1945,197,2007,70,2009,1350,1517,2005,1707,2003,2008,415],"class_list":["post-15628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-and-research","category-campus-community","tag-blue-jay-food-pantry","tag-blue-jay-pantry","tag-college-food-pantries","tag-computer-science","tag-ecs","tag-elizabethtown-college","tag-elizabethtown-college-computer-science","tag-engineering","tag-engineering-and-computer-science","tag-etown","tag-etown-college","tag-food-pantry","tag-hunger-free-campus","tag-jay-pantry","tag-software-engineering","tag-stem","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15628"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15645,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15628\/revisions\/15645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}