Communications of the ACM
Engineering Firm Awards Contract To Rowan niversity Computer Science Team
Adrian Rusu, an associate professor of computer science, will head Rowan University's team for a project involving Mission Solutions Engineering's ADI software system.
Credit: Rowan University
Mission Solutions Engineering (MSE) has awarded a $100,000 one-year contract to Rowan University to help the firm improve the capabilities of a software system called Advanced Display Infrastructure (ADI).
ADI is an application that provides situational awareness to military users and others through a display of the Earth, using the World Geodetic System 1984, in part to show the location of military units. Similar to Google Earth, ADI allows users to navigate the globe to view those units and potential targets.
Dr. Adrian Rusu, an associate professor of computer science, will head Rowan's team of four undergraduate and graduate students on the project titled "Visualization and Software Engineering Strategies for Tactical Decisions Advances."
The project will focus in part on developing software for new decision aids, tools that will help the ADI users more quickly determine and act upon courses of action. The students will develop features that help improve the navigation around the globe and calculations that help determine potential collisions between two objects. The students' computer code will be used as an external support for ADI in what is called an "independent library" to enable users to employ portable devices similar to a handheld Global Positioning System or GPS. Rowan actually started work on the project last semester, with students developing, among other things, a collision detection tool.
Ultimately, MSE will use the Rowan work to promote its ADI product and to cultivate more business from military service branches.
As well as benefiting MSE, the collaboration benefits Rowan computer science students, who will gain "real-world" experience. MSE is in effect a client of the students, who must deliver a product, hold meetings and present a final report to MSE management.
"Students at Rowan are being exposed to a real-world project unlike any other," says Robert Russell, 21, of Mount Laurel, NJ, a senior who is the student leader of the Rowan team. "Students are exposed to the software engineering life cycle, as they have to gather requirements, design the system, develop the code, test their application and deliver it to the customer. Students are given real responsibility and are expected to work 20 hours a week on this project. An opportunity like this will help students when they apply for a job."
In addition to this project, the MSE/Rowan collaboration will include establishing a co-op program and offering master-level courses at MSE facilities. MSE in headquartered in Arlington, VA., and has an operations center in Moorestown, NJ, about 30 miles from Rowan's Glassboro, NJ campus.
"We are very excited to expand our partnership with Rowan University," says MSE President Tim Caswell. "Through the ADI effort and co-op program, MSE is able to bring innovative perspectives to our offerings and students will interact with and learn from industry leaders. We hope that the success of this program will lead to future collaboration efforts in other areas."
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