General Info

Welcome to the home page for William and Mary's Developer Student Club (DSC). We are excited to have you code with us! Our mission is to work with other Developer Student Clubs around the world to bring computer science to the forefront of academics on campus.

William and Mary prides itself on its liberal arts approach to education; it's one of the first things you learn when you come to campus. What this means is biologists take creative writing, data scientists complete geology field work, and comedian Patton Oswald ('91) jokes about his experience in Physics for Poets.

William and Mary's DSC aims to build another bridge between computer science and the other disciplines through education series and consulting projects with research groups on campus. We want people asking questions like:

• How can I use computer science to complete this task faster?
• Can I write a script to automate this?
• How can I use technology to make a bigger impact in my field?

With these questions in mind, William and Mary's DSC is excited to engage with you for the 2024-2025 school year. Thanks for joining us!

Technical Workshops

We host technical workshops most Tuesdays at 7pm in ISC 1280! For updates on when we will be holding workshops, please reach out to developerstudentclubwm@gmail.com to join our mailing list. Our workshops begin Tuesday, September 2nd for the Fall 2024 semester. No previous technical experience is required. Even if you've never taken a computer science class in your life, we start from square one, and have Core Team members on-hand to assist and explain. If this description all seems too overwhelming, come to a workshop and we'll walk through it step by step. To see the code for past and current projects check out our GitHub. Hope to see you there!

Consulting

Developer Student Club at W&M serves as a nonprofit consulting group for research groups, student groups, etc. at William & Mary. In the past we have created websites, Python scripts, and apps. Below is a list of past and ongoing projects and descriptions. If you or your organization would like to request an app, website, or other computer science-based product, read through our frequently asked questions below and send us an email (see below for what to include in the email). Our recruitment cycle for the Fall 2024 is completed. If you have any specific questions about the application process or are interested in getting involved in the future, don't hesitate to reach out to the club!

Current Ongoing Projects

Fall 2024 (Project 1) - Present

• Organization: Flat Hat News
• Deliverable: Integrated web platform with a set of games on the Flat Hat News website
• Purpose: Develop a set of games, similar to the NYT games section available from the Flat Hat website.
• Current Team: Alex Batts (lead), Caleb Elster, Gigi Kuffa, Matthew Berthoud, Michael Mehler

Fall 2024 (Project 2) - Present

• Deliverable: Web platform with forms, built in scheduling, and a connected database.
• Purpose: Develop an internal web platform to assist with our recruitment process.
• Current Team: Lekha Reddy (lead), Myra Cropper (lead), Alex Zhou, Lillie Ayer, Marab Khan, Zaid Dib

Spring 2024 (Project 1) - Present

• Organization: Student Leadership Development Office
• Deliverable: Create an accessible web platform for renting out equipment to W&M students.
• Purpose: Help develop a user-friendly system and interface for students to easily browse and checkout equipment.
• Current Team: Jason LaPierre (lead), Camly Tran, Eden Fitsum, Lianhao Li, Vaughn Mitchell

Spring 2024 (Project 2) - Present

• Organization: Global Americas Lab
• Deliverable: Develop a legible web interface that stories shipping data and allows for queries.
• Purpose: This interface will act as the front end display for research data from the Global Americas Lab. It will present the data in an accessible manner through its layout and search functionality.
• Current Team: Henry Burke (lead), Mike Martinez (lead), Adam Nhan, Daniel Shi, Rachel Huang, Zainab Shinaba

Spring 2021 - Present

• Organization: Alpha Phi Omega (APO)
• Deliverable: Flutter app (for Android and iOS)
• Purpose: This app connects students with APO's on-campus ride service, Campus Escort, which helps students travel safely between any two locations on campus at night.
• App demo: https://youtu.be/BZkvsUaJXHE
• App availability: Currently available for download on the iOS app store and the Google Play store for free!
• Current Team: Clare Heinbaugh (founder), Cheyenne Hwang (lead), Alexei Gall, Grace Yoon, Kate Ritter, Megan Timmes

Past Projects

To see a list our past project descriptions access the document here.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What kinds of projects can you do?

We can create websites, apps, or scripts that aid in a research project. It also comes down to the skills of the Consultants that are available. While we want to produce quality code and products for clients, Developer Student Club at W&M is also focused on helping new developers gain experience. That being said, we have talented consultants who are up to the challenge, so if you're not sure if a project is in our wheelhouse, send us an email to ask at developerstudentclubwm@gmail.com.

How do you choose which projects to do?

We want to take on projects that have a positive social impact and relate to causes our developers are passionate about. While a lot of organizations may want a website for their group, there are many free or cheap online solutions that require no coding background to create beautiful, informative websites. If, however, you have a specific service you want to offer to users (examples include: a unique messaging platform, driving service, outreach organizer), we would love to hear from you about your potential project.

How many projects do you take on each semester?

We usually plan to complete 1-2 projects each semester. As we bring together more talented consultants, we may expand the number of projects that we take on.

What is the timeline for this process?

Once you send us an email with your project idea, we will contact you to set up a 30-minute meeting. Then, we will meet with our Consultants before the next semester and select the projects that we want to complete that semester. Depending on how time sensitive your project is, we may still be able to do your project in a future semester even if it is not chosen for the upcoming semester. Once we form a team for your project, we will need to go over the project specifications in-depth (about a 1 hour meeting) and then meet a minimum of 3 more times during the semester (about 30 minute meetings) to provide project updates and ask additional questions. Once the project is complete by the end of the semester or shortly thereafter, we will continue to offer help and fix any major bugs that come up for the next three months. After that period ends, we will hand over the code base to your organization.

How much does it cost?

Our services are completely free! We only ask that the client cover hosting or database storage fees, but for many projects these will be minimal or nonexistent. Again, our goal is to offer more computer science experience to our members and allow them to use their skills to give back to the William & Mary community.

Requesting a project

If you have read through past projects and FAQs and want to request a project, send us an email at developerstudentclubwm@gmail.com with answers to the following questions:

• What is the name and general purpose of your organization?
• Describe the project. For instance, if you are requesting an app, create a bulleted list of screens that you want to include and basic functionality.
• What user data (if any) will your app/website/script need to store? If there are privacy concerns (i.e., payment information, sensitive communications etc.), please elaborate.
• Approximately how many people do you expect will use your product?
• How time sensitive is this project? If we cannot start it this upcoming semester, would you still want to be considered as a project in a future semester?
• What times within the next few weeks can you meet for 30 minutes to discuss the project?

We usually respond to requests within the week.

We look forward to working with you!