Coding for Community

Coding for Community is an annual software development contest.  Students are encouraged to use their software skills to develop free calculators and libraries in vCalc to benefit their communities.  These   1^st Place Winner
Zeinab Bandpey ($1,000) calculators can provides solutions to the broadest imaginable problems ranging from agriculture to aerospace and at all levels of user education.  The calculators are judged for:
  1^st Place Winner Tyler Jones ($1,000)

• helpfulness to the community,
• accuracy in their utilization, and
• quality of execution of development.  This includes:
  • well designed and developed code
  • well documented wiki pages to instruct users on how to benefit.

There is also a separate award based on community adoption that measures the number of times a calculator is used over an evaluation period.

2015 Results

2015 President's Award: ($1,000)

• Price Comparisons Calculator, by Tyler Jones of St Mary's College of Maryland
  • Local Media Coverage
  • College Media Coverage

Community Adoption Award:($1,000)

• Holiday Bonus Calculator, by Zeinab Bandpey of Morgan State University
  • Used 2,036 times in the three month evaluation period. 1,855 (Iran), 91 (U.S.), 27(Italy), 16 (U.K.), 12 (France) +
  • NEWLY AWARDED: 4/1/2016
  • Local Media Coverage

Status

The Coding for Community contest for 2015 is now closed and the submissions for the first award, the President's Award, have been completed (below).  The second evaluation starts on January 1, 2016 and runs to March 31, 2016 and is solely based on community use of the calculators.

The Universities with student awards are:

• Morgan State University
• Olivet Nazarene University
• Frostburg State University
• St Mary's College of Maryland
• Gannon State University
• Africa Nazarene University

Links to all of the equations and calculators submitted in this contest are at the bottom of this collection.

Final Evaluation

Top Awards 1^st(2), 2^nd and 3^rd

• Price Comparisons Calculator
  • Functions work.  Units used appropriately.  Expected results
  • Wiki describes functionality nicely
  • Community Usefulness: EXCELLENT resource to the global population.
  • Award:  1^st  ($1,000 U.S.)  President's Award

• Holiday Bonus Calculator
  • Functions work. Expected results
  • Wiki describes functionality in English and Farsi
  • Community Usefulness: Excellent with several thousand monthly page hits during the three month evaluation period, especially leading up to the No-Rooz holiday.
  • Award: 1^st ($1,000 U.S.) Community Adoption Award

• Three Sensor Sound Source Locator
  • Functions work well.  Nested subroutines. Good use of math (least squares).  
  • Wiki description needs some improvement on how to use this tool.
  • Community Usefulness: VERY HIGHT, potential savings of significant expense for municipalities. 
  • Suggestion: Add diagrams to help the users set up their own grids.  Perhaps add YouTube video instructions.
  • Award:  2 ^nd ($500)   

• Building Stairs
  • Functions Work.  Multi-button calculator.  Units used in some cases
  • Wiki description: Key words described, but no process instructions.  Some terms from the equations are not described (e.g. numerator / denominator).  Good links to external information sources (e.g. YouTube videos)
  • Community Usefulness to community: HIGH, helpful to the global construction and DIY communities.
  • Suggestions: use more units for inputs.  Provide better instructions for use of calculator formulas
  • Award: 3^nd ($300 U.S.)

Bonus Awards  4^th & 5^th

• Health Companion
  • Buttons work.  Used multiple tabs, Used vCalc units when appropriate
  • Wiki Descriptions:  MODERATE for equations, LOW for calculator
  • Usefulness to community: MODERATE
  • Suggestions: Improve calculator wiki.  Use advanced units features.
  • Award:  4^th ($100)
• Are cyclic groups isomorphic
  • Functions work.  Significant technical expertise (Group Theory)
  • Wiki Description:  LOW.  It takes a math person to understand that this is a higher math construct.
  • Usefulness to community: MODERATE
  • Suggestion: Update wiki with graphic and expanded description.  Use dynamic markup capability.
  • Award:  4^th  ($100 U.S.)
• Music Duration Calculator
  • Buttons work. Units employed appropriately. Expected results
  • Wiki Description: GOOD
  • Usefulness to Community: GOOD
  • Suggestion: Use enumerated types for classic temp settings (e.g. vivace = 140 bpm).  This could be an additional formula.
  • Award:  4^th ($100 U.S.)
• Holiday Bonus Calculator
  • Function works well.  Mature but simple algorithm
  • Wiki describes functionality (in Farsi)
  • Usefulness to community: Very High
  • Award:  4^th ($100 U.S.) 
•  League of Legend Suite
  • Includes several equations and accurate calculations
  • Wiki descriptions are very useful.
  • Use to community: MODERATE 
  • Award:  4^th ($100 U.S.)
• Clash of Clans - Gold/Elixir
  • Functionality uses enumerated lists, and code uses case statements.
  • Wiki describes the functionality well.
  • Use to community: MODERATE
  • Award:  4^th ($100 U.S.)

• Pregnancy Due Date Calc
  
  • All buttons: Working. Units work Well.  Gave expected results
  • Useful to community is HIGH
  • Technical Overall MODERATE
  • Wiki descriptions: MODERATE
  • Award: 5^th ($50 U.S.)
• Life Budget
  • Good execution in code
  • Wiki is helpful
  • Usefulness to community: Good
  • Award: 5^th ($50 U.S.)
• Smallest Prime Factor
  • Function works well and was added to the taxonomy
  • Wiki is empty.
  • Usefulness to community: LOW
  • Award: 5^th ($50 U.S.)
• Malthusian Growth Model
  • Functions work well.  Could have used DURATION units.  
  • Wiki is informative and includes external links.
  • Usefulness to Community: MODERATE
  • Award: 5^th ($50 U.S.)

General Awards

• University Fee Calculator
  • Button works (Only two of the listed universities provide values)
  • Wiki description: MODERATE
  • Usefulness to Community: HIGH (and will be very high if the full extent of the program is realized)
  • Award: ($25 U.S.)
• Health Calculator
  • All buttons: Working.  Used vCalc units.  Gave unexpected units in result.
  • Wiki descriptions: LOW
  • Award: ($25 U.S.)
• Syklas Polynomial Calc
  • All buttons: Working, Gave expected results
  • Useful to community is LOW
  • Wiki descriptions: LOW
  • Award: ($25 U.S.)
• Body Mass Index
  • Button works. Used vCalc units. Gave unexpected result
  • Wiki description: MODERATE
  • Award: ($25 U.S.)
• Jess Sports Calculator
  • All Buttons: Working. Expected results
  • Technical: LOW very simple formulas
  • Useful to community: LOW (unless much more is added)
  • Wiki Description: MODERATE
  • Award: ($25 U.S.)
• Shoe Size Converter
  • Buttons work.  Used vCalc units in appropriately. Gave results with unexpected units
  • Wiki description: MODERATE
  • Usefulness to Community: MODERATE
  • Award: ($25 U.S.)
• Blood Alcohol Concentration
  • Buttons work.  Formula provide expected results.  vCalc units used, but there should have been a conversion between mass (g) and volume (fluid ounces or milliliters)
  • Wiki description: MODERATE
  • Useful to community: MODERATE
  • Award: ($25 U.S.)
• RUSAKA's Health Calculator
  • Buttons work and use vCalc units.  Result return expected values but in wrong units.
  • WIki descriptions: MODERATE to GOOD
  • Usefulness to Community: GOOD
  • Award: ($25 U.S.)
• Gym
  • Buttons work.  One is "Under development"
  • Usefulness to Community: LOW unit the concept if fleshed out more.  But could be very good
  • Wiki Description: MODERATE
  • Award: ($25 U.S.)

These token (Equations and Calculators) were submitted to the 2015 Coding for Community Contest.  The following could not be evaluated because it was not made public:

• Fortunata's Health Calculator: https://www.vcalc.com/wiki/Nyinondi/Fortunata's+Health+Calculator