SRC:2008 URC

Back to UNH Student Research Conference


 * Poster Session:Wednesday, April 23, 2008 4:00-6:00PM

Asset Mapping Database for NH Catholic Charities

 * Authors:Emily Duane, Andrew Dufault, James Graichen, Andrew Schwab


 * Abstract:New Hampshire Catholic Charities (NHCC) offers a unique service to New Hampshire citizens in need. In the event of a disaster or emergency, NHCC coordinates the deployment of faith-based communities and other agencies that are ready to offer their services. The various agencies’ participation is managed by the NHCC's Asset Mapping Database (AMD) system. The system, however, is ill-equipped to handle the main function of generating customized reports based on agency and service information the database stores. Additionally, access to the system is limited to only one user. This project addresses a clear need for a new, secure, and more efficient system, which properly handles current agency information, expands its scope to hold more information in the future, and allows secure access of multiple users.  The research process for the project started with a thorough analysis of the existing system and an effort to create a complete specification of a properly functioning system. A thorough study of the Unified Modeling Language and the Unified Process for software system development enabled the team to apply the universal visual modeling language and methodology to build a new AMD system. By capturing requirements that the system must fulfill and by conducting an analysis that modeled the system's essential behavior based on those requirements, the team was able to determine a static structure and dynamic behavior of the intended system. This new system will best benefit NHCC's needs of retaining information, generating reports, and protecting information. The result is the framework of a new AMD whose advantages are security, ease of use, and improved and more comprehensive functionality.  The system will increase the productivity of NHCC operations in handling emergency situations.

Civic Engagement: A Database Application to Manage Community Programs

 * Authors: Anmorya Nolan, Michael Ripley, Robert Watt


 * Abstract:The Massabesic Audubon Center (MAC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about the natural world. This project helps MAC upgrade their computer-based system for keeping track of the center's activities and resources. The current MAC system consists of a combination of a largely flat file system using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and a broken Access database. This project’s objective is to completely redesign the MAC system into a technically sound relational database. The new system uses tables with rows, corresponding to each database entry, and columns, corresponding to each entry field, such that the tables relate to each other via common fields. This system redesign has the advantage of tracking more effectively who is participating in MAC activities and in what capacity.


 * The first step in our development process was to speak with MAC employees who would be using the system to identify what their requirements were. These requirements informed us about the major elements of a relational database model: the system entities, such as contacts, events and programs, and their relationships. The resulting structure allowed us to compose queries in the Structured Query Language that returns customized reports to the user. Interface development was the last phase, cushioning the user from application’s underlying structure through a series of forms, supporting an effective and user-friendly operation of the database. The resulting application is a streamlined business process. An initial login page supports user authentication. Once authenticated the user encounters tabbed sections relating to contacts, events, programs, and equipment rentals, each containing more specific forms and reports. Future work on this project requires database deployment at the user’s site.



Community Program Management System for Massabesic Audubon Center

 * Authors: Brian Block, Tejas Desai, Ryan Maroux


 * Abstract:The Massabesic Audubon Center (MAC) provides practical education for conservation of wildlife and habitat in New Hampshire. The current system used involves hard copies and limited integration. The community program management system ties together the areas of programs, people, rentals, and scheduling into a single integrated interface. This system will allow the streamlining of the MAC business process, benefitting all who use their services. This research project includes the initial analysis of business requirements and continues into more elaborate analysis stages and documentation that describes, in detail, the system’s functions and components. The study applies the Unified Process to the project’s development schedule and methodology, and the Unified Modeling Language to formalize our analysis and document the project’s outcomes. The analysis of the MAC system led to documentation outlining requirements, as well as multiple diagrams that model the system in various ways. During iterations of the Unified Process, we translate the business requirements into a detailed, efficient, and user friendly system specification that could be easily learned by the MAC employees. The resultant system includes contact information about all people associated with the center, the programs and schedules involved, as well as facility and equipment rentals. Each of these functional business areas is tied into a central user interface that allows the employees to improve integrity of data between functional areas, which in turn make the business processes more efficient, cost effective, and improves services for the community of New Hampshire.

Data Control System for Massabesic Audubon Center

 * Authors: Michael Ripley, Admir Salkic, Rob Watt


 * Abstract:Massabesic Audubon Center is a nonprofit, community program organization which is dedicated to the conservation of wildlife and habitat throughout the state. Its mission is to protect New Hampshire's natural environment for wildlife and for people. Currently the organization has an inefficient data management system to control their data such as contact information on all the individuals involved with the organization and information on all the programs they provide for their community. The purpose of our project is to design a system which will handle their data more efficiently. By meeting with the clients, the team created a System Requirements document. With the help of this document, different functionalities of the system were modeled with the use of Unified Modeling Language and the Unified Process. By advancing through the Inception and Elaboration stages of the Unified Process, the team designed the Building blocks and the Architecture for the prospecting system. The result of this project is a System Analysis Specification document which will assist programmers with theimplementation and deployment of the application. Our design will make the implementation of the system fluent for the developers and consequently make the Massabesic Audubon Center more efficient with the management of their data.

Delivering a Business Management System: From Requirements Capture to Integrated Application

 * Authors: Brian Block, Admir Salkic, Jason Wojtas
 * Abstract:Massabesic Audubon Center (MAC) is a nonprofit state wide organization whose dedication is to conserve wildlife and its habitat throughout New Hampshire. The MAC provides many great programs intended to educate and present the beauty of New Hampshire to the general public. As with many non-profit organizations, the MAC is using an antiquated database application that does not have the functionality they required as a growing organization. This project is meant to remedy this situation.


 * The onset of the project included gathering information about the operations of the MAC and critically analyzing the data storage and retrieval needs of the center. Meeting with the individual who would become the primary user of the application allowed us to create an application with the user in mind. The database tables were then constructed and organized using the database structured query language. The tables, modeling business entities, include contacts, volunteers, programs and rentals, and represent basis for developing the graphical user interface (GUI). We used an Oracle rapid application development tool, Application Express to implement a web-based GUI. The GUI consists of various forms and reports designed to give the user a streamlined application that allows one to input and retrieve all the necessary information for managing the center’s operation. The new application will provide MAC with an up-to-date and user-friendly data management tool.



Developing Technology Solutions for a Local Non-Profit Organization

 * Authors: Rashid Alfaruque, Andrew Conohan, Tejas Desai, Ryan Marcoux
 * Abstract:The Massabessic Audubon Center (MAC) is a non-profit organization located in Auburn NH. MAC deals with nature preservation and offers nature programs, school programs, and facility rentals for personal and corporate gatherings. Their current computer-based system uses a Microsoft Access database to track these services and participating people. However, the system is not functioning correctly. Some of the relationships between tables are missing which compromises the database integrity. This project’s goal is to correct these deficiencies and deliver a system that is easy to use. The project started with collecting the requirements from the user to design tables that correspond to their business entities, such as different types of participants (volunteers, donors, sponsors, and instructors), scheduled events, and equipment for rent. Based on this information, the design of the database used the structured query language (SQL) and Oracle development tools, such as SQLDeveloper and Application Express. The user interface was developed to be easy to understand and use. It has several tabs across the top of the screen to allow for easy navigation from one entry screen to another. The home tab has a calendar form that displays the events that are scheduled for the current month. It also allows for scrolling through future months to see what events are coming up. The forms are designed to accept new information and update information already in the system. The reports the new system generates summarize the information in the database according to various criteria. This project will replace the old system and give the employees and volunteers a more comprehensive method of recording and reporting on the activities and participation of the community at the center. The project still needs adjustments to further refine the forms and reports. The near future plan is to have this database application implemented at the client site.

Volunteer Management System for Salvation Army in Manchester

 * Authors: Eddie Callahan, Rick Boulanger, Steve Zarse
 * Abstract:Difficulty in developing the essence of a substantial information system lies with the responsibility of obtaining knowledge about a particular organization. The Salvation Army of Manchester is a non-profit organization designed to meet human needs without discrimination especially in time of crisis, and also offer care for inner city kids in need of some activity to help keep them off the streets. The goal of this research project is to gather information about the organizations method to track and implement volunteers into their daily duties. Using the analysis and design documented models we are working on taking the methods they use to document all the volunteers and implement what they do with paper now to a digital form. Currently the Salvation Army of Manchester is overwhelmed with paper documents and disarrayed excel files containing information on events and volunteers.


 * The projects approach consisted in using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to develop and analyze the system behavior and configuration. By combining the use of analysis modeling tools to formalize the system’s functionality with constant interaction with Salvation Army Manchester personnel we grasped the ability to capture the wants and needs of the organization, which is cause for the maturation of the system development over time. Requirements and analysis models and documents formalize the many aspects of the business process the system will automate, such as precise features of the most representative business entities (classes with attributes and operations), flow of events when a specific operation is carried out, or navigational graph of user interaction events. Salvation Army of Manchester will greatly benefit from the implementation of this system, streamlining the workflow needed to keep track of all this vital data.



URC CIS Student Projects