CS

CS or Computer Science, is taught by Mrs. Taricco. In CS we learn HTML, Java, and CSS, and have been able to create things like this website (using HTML and CSS), as well as mortgage calculators or complex-looking designs (using Java). We also sometimes have different coding challenges in which we work in partners or groups of 3 to complete. These are fun to figure out. We also participated in Computer Science Education Week, and we could choose to complete some fun challenge problems for prizes!

Line Art Lab

As a part of our CS course at MAMS, we do different coding labs, where we are given one major problem that we code a solution for. We are given some time in class to work on these problems, and, as it turns out, for me at least, a lot of planning and working things through on paper is needed before any actual coding can begin. In Lab 06, the Line Art Lab, we needed to find a way to code the design that you can see below. Believe it or not, that design was made using only straight lines, and took some time to work out the issues. We worked independently on this project, but we were free, and encouraged, to talk with each other and Mrs. Taricco if something was not working, or if we had a cool idea that worked well.

Line Art Lab

Picture Swap from the Iterations Exercises

Another part of CS class involves different exercises relating to different lessons that we have had on Java. There was one exercise that I thought was really cool as a part of our iterations exercises assignment, and that was manipulating an image to look like it's negative. The iterations exercises focused mainly on loops and how to use them, and for this specific exercise, the code that I was looping over got the RGB color that the pixel in the original picture was, and then made it its negative, as can be seen in the code located to the right. The original picture I used can be seen below, and the negative picture can be seen beside it.

Picture Swap Picture Swap

Apps For Good Project

Problem Statement

Knowing what to wear can be difficult, particularly if you have a disability that makes it more difficult to process information. Choosing what to wear in a day involves knowing what the weather is, understanding what the weather forecast means, remembering what clothes are available, planning what to wear, and choosing what articles are appropriate for the day. In 2010, 56.7 million Americans had disabilities, and a portion of these people experienced hardships in making decisions, including what to wear (Disability - Census Bureau Data). A study published by the National Institute of Health stated that 6.3% of their testing population reported having a mental disability, including learning, intellectual, or developmental disability (Nguyen and Gilbert). Even in this relatively small population of 3000 people, disabilities are prevalent and present challenges to those who have them. Every person should be allowed to be independent if they wish, and it can be difficult to achieve independence when the tasks society deems as “simple,” such as choosing what to wear based on the weather, are not as easily manageable. Moreover, the Bureau of Census Data reported in 2019 that cognitive difficulty was the most common type of disability in children 5+, showcasing that cognitive disabilities will be prevalent in the upcoming generations and we need to be prepared to raise independent individuals (Disability - Census Bureau Data). By empowering those impacted by disabilities, we can make sure they are safe and can take care of themselves in the chance that no one can assist them.

Target Audience

Our audience includes those who face significant intellectual challenges that could inhibit their ability to make thoughtful decisions about their outfit based on daily weather conditions. Additionally, the app focuses on those involved in the Seven Hills program, designed to support adults and families who may face challenges, including disabilities or poverty. The main goal of Seven Hills is to help people become more independent, and this aim has also become one of our goals.

Our Solution and MVP

Our group developed an app in partnership with the Seven Hills Foundation called WeatherWear, which utilizes weather data in the city of Worcester to provide clothing recommendations to users. This app was built using Flutter and Dart, so that it could be accessible to users on all platforms like Android, IOS, Chrome, and many other devices or web services.

When the app is first opened up, the user is brought to a main page, which displays the current weather and temperature in degrees fahrenheit. To get the current weather data, we used an api called Weather api (weatherapi.com), which allowed us to get the weather for the city of Worcester specifically. The current weather and temperature are displayed both in word form and pictorially, so users can see what the condition is, and then what that might look like.

At the bottom right of the main screen, there is a button that says “What Should I Wear?” Once this button is pressed, the user is brought to a second page that has a main header with the same question of “What Should I Wear?” Beneath this initial header is another header that says “You Should Wear:.” The user can then scroll through and look at a list of clothing items that have been recommended to them based on the current and future weather data for the day.

The list of clothing items was determined using an algorithm we developed, which took in a list of weatherCondition’s (a class we created to store both temperature and the weather condition in one object), and outputted a list of Strings that represented the clothing items. Very basically, the algorithm worked by looking at the different pairs of temperature and weather conditions, and outputting a list of strings representing the different items that should be worn for each individual pairing. The lists were then compared against each other, and the more common articles of clothing were put into a final list of Strings that was returned. This allowed us to develop unique combinations of clothing items for each different combination of weather types.

Our Poster