A pc science class taught by Tony Scarlatos at Stony Brook College is undoubtedly heavy on know-how. However, at its coronary heart, the category is civic-oriented, serving to college students apply the programming abilities they be taught for higher social good.
In the course of the course, college students think about issues their communities face and methods to deal with them by means of know-how. The college’s “benevolent computing course” companions with space nonprofits — which frequently lack sources — providing free assist with know-how initiatives whereas giving college students a chance to find the great they’ll do with their abilities, the professor mentioned.
One nonprofit that partnered with Scarlatos’ class is the Oakdale Historic Society, the place a three-student staff created an interactive, 360-degree digital tour of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Oakdale’s solely Christian church and the second-oldest in Suffolk County. The church, based in 1765, has been deemed “a hidden gem” by the society. With dwindling in-person guests due to the pandemic, the society hopes the digital tour will develop the church’s attain.
“No manner would I be capable of get this sort of know-how finished. We do not have the funding, we do not have the know-how,” mentioned historic society president Maryann Almes, who requested the undertaking after talking with Scarlatos about one other interactive tour his college students had created.
Stony Brook College senior Vivek Mathew, 21, outdoors St. John’s Episcopal Church in Oakdale. He helped create an interactive, 360-degree tour of the historic church for the Oakdale Historic Society.
Credit score: Tony Scarlatos
For the undertaking, senior Vivek Mathew, 21, of Congers, New York, snapped 3D panoramic photographs of the church, grounds and graveyard to construct a digital world that permits guests to “stroll” by means of the property. Whereas perusing the graveyard’s headstones, guests can hear tales of these buried by means of the voices of residing historical past actors.
Mathew, a pc science main, mentioned he developed his personal code so guests can entry the tour on-line.
“This can be a story — if I wasn’t doing this undertaking — I would not have recognized,” Mathew mentioned of the church’s historical past, including that he was drawn to the undertaking due to his curiosity in historical past.
The category helped him notice alternatives for “computing for good,” Mathew mentioned. “I assumed, perhaps if I take this course, I might consider completely different avenues of programming that may assist me really feel extra fulfilled with my complete career.”
Scarlatos, who has taught the course at Stony Brook College for greater than a decade, mentioned he was impressed by Georgia Tech’s “computing for good” graduate course. In recent times, such lessons have grown into what he mentioned is an “rising sub-discipline” in an period the place huge tech grapples with its ethics. Plus, it offers college students a chance to refine abilities past what they’ll do on a pc.
Former college students have constructed a program for the Cleary Faculty for the Deaf in Nesconset, which translated spoken English into video clips of American Signal Language. College students even have labored with the Suffolk County Disaster Hotline to research their name quantity and higher assess risk ranges.
Scarlatos mentioned this system is increasing within the fall to incorporate different disciplines, from social work to jazz research, and can give college students alternatives to work on initiatives for a number of semesters.
