Body Composition Calculator
Project scope
The Graduation Project had the following requirements:
- Research an approved academic topic that interests you.
- Learn enough about this topic to present on it for approximately 30 minutes.
- Regularly meet with your adviser to show progress.
Background
While attending Junior High, the idea for this project came into light during a health class. Part of the curriculum required students to explore the concept of body mass and fitness through the use of skin fold measurements and a specialized software suite. Originally this software was developed in the 1970's for use on Apple II machines. To this point, they were still being used, 30 years later! By the time I was enrolled in this particular class, the computers were beginning to show signs of wear, breaking down never to be used again due to the need for near impossible to find components. I spoke with my friend Devin about possibly rewriting the software for use on a new computer system, and the project took off from here!
I was graciously given two failed Apple computers for experimentation, and after a month of diagnostics and ordering replacement parts, I had revived one of them and acquired the software in question (the first time I ever saw a 5.25" floppy in person). From here, Devin and I worked through every feature the current software offered and built a requirements list. After meeting with the health teachers and technology department, we expanded this list to include requirements and additional feature requests. Overall, this process took about a year and a half to complete. Over the next eight months, we installed Visual Studio, began to learn VB.net, and experimented with the different features available at out disposal. We worked with file input and output, updating, creating a place to display support documentation, and finally completed a working version of the software.
By this time we were now sophomores in highschool and attended our first senior project meeting. Shocking the advisors, we announced our project and upon approval, it was deemed complete. Not only were we both able to go significantly above expectations, but we also completed the project years in advance of any other students attending the school. This project led to presentations during school open houses over the next three years, with the Greensburg Rotary Club, and many additional meetings with the school administration and technology department.
Project Results
I would consider this my first major advancement in the computing field, overcoming the same problems and limitations that "real" developers do every day at work. We were able to work cooperatively with both people having limited experience with computers and those who had degrees in exactly what we were attempting to do. This software was not only able to meet every requirement, but we also offered several improvements and fixes to the limitations holding back the previous software. In addition, the old software required approximately eight pages to display output and offered no on screen output. This took on average 10 minutes before results were obtained, and errors could not be corrected once entered into the program! The new software was able to give the same information instantly on screen and print the full output on one sheet of paper reducing its footprint. This all was completed while maintaining a much improved experience for the students and educator.
Overall, the connections gained from this experience were just as important as the knowledge itself. It gave us the opportunity to stay in contact with the district allowing the continued use and maintenance of the software years after our graduation. To this day, the Body Composition Calculator is still being used as a part of the health curriculum, and the antiquated Apple II computers have since been retired. To support the software long term, a website was created housing support documentation and the software itself for download. It has since been expanded to include our personal technology blogs and other miscellaneous computing related projects.
To view this site please visit the internet home of our business, FullForce Applications and take a look around!
Below you will find an image gallery containing photos from the Greater Latrobe open house display, the Rotary Club presentation, and the software itself.
