Scientist Meeting 1

Date: January 21, 2022 5:30pm EST (Zoom -- recording can be found in Google Drive)

Scientist(s)

• Leo Ureel II
• Meara Pellar-Kosbar

Attendance

• Audrey Schmitt
• Kevin Cornell
• Austin Sopha
• Christian Clemmons
• Marie Zgurich
• Foenix Szot
• Leo Ureel II
• Meara Pellar-Kosbar

Agenda

• Walk through questions in scientist pre interview notes 1
• Ask Leo if he has any questions for us
• Receive a solid understanding of the requirements & expectations of the application

Meeting Notes

• Please tell us about your app idea

• Tool to allow students (middle school and high school) to model the supply chain

• Does it have an intended goal?

• No “end-goal”, but is more about mechanics (sandbox, play around with, educational)

• We could make one, but we don’t need to at all

• How complex does the simulation need to be?

• Similar to cellular automata (Sim City, game of Life)

• Like a city-builder, but with a supply chain
• cells/node fit together to build it
• Each node has different capabilities (developer node, consumer node, etc.) build relationships between them or manage them
• Can add new distribution nodes or modify
• Budget, man-power, environmental impacts (Events)

• Pandemic impact perhaps?
• Canal being blocked? (economic blockage that have to build around)
• Have different events happening in simulation for students to work around
• GODZILLA!

• Get working first: simulation, add educational information around simulation (like side notes)

• Who are the users of your app?

• Middle and high school students, as well as teachers
• Hope to get into Hancock schools next fall

• What data should the app collect if any?

• Develop the supply chain state, in which you could save afterwards and export it for teachers to view

• Or to load up that simulation so that it can be tweaked with further

• Do you want realistic, real, or fictional data?

• More realistic, but with fictional data (it is an educational sandbox basically)
• Have relatable or realistic events/products, but have it be engaging so that students want to tweak and play around with the system they are making

• Is it linear data?

• What are the constraints in the data collection?

• What is the time scale for the data (i.e. what is the ratio of time in the simulation to the real world)?

• To keep it entertaining, keep time sped up.

• Time slider to speed up or slow down
• Pause time
• Rewind time(?)

• When or where will the app be used?

• Poster for bringing up interest for the app once done (?)
• ITICSE Conference to be posted in Dublin (July 8th - 13th)

• https://iticse.acm.org/2022/
• Post potential prototype of our supply chain simulation app

• CSTA (Computer Science Teachers Association) to contribute to the paper

• What information or content does the app show the user?

• Simulate items being shipped (like produce or physical items, not digital)
• Three main nodes: Could possibly break them into something more specific

• Demand
• Supply
• Distribution
• Don’t have to be confined to these

• Budget can be a resulting factor (perhaps?)

• Depends on simulation vs. game-like app
• Could make it as a goal for the simulation

• Do you have any documents such as flyers, forms, or spreadsheets you can share with us?

• Yes, see email for particular supply chain model (link it later)
• Further documents will be sent out for future ideas and examples on how to set it up

• Help for designs of a supply chain system

• Do you have a UI concept in place?

• No, not any particular concept, focus should be more on functionality rather than pretty UI or graphics (focus on learning)
• Doesn’t need to be visually appealing, UI needs to at least be usable and functional

• See Ozbayrak_2007.pdf for in Google Drive under Important Informational Documents folder for example
• Graphics can come last

• Is the idea to have a more barebones UI or be more unique/playful?

• Up to us to figure out how it looks like

• Game-like simulation?

• Cell-expansion wars (for graphic ideas?)

• Change it to be numbers or how much/amount of product is going that way
• Simple is good and perfectly okay (doesn’t need to be fancy)

• How will the users interact with the app?

• (most likely a point-and-click sort of simulation on computer?)

• How much would you like to be involved in the product’s development? (contact frequently and for how small of details?)

• Yes, contact/update frequently, especially with major updates

• Also please invite Meara to meetings and update her as well

• Keep track of what doing in systematic way, let them grab from notes so they know what is being developed

Action Items

• Team to prepare a detailed app description & prepare to present to class