News And Notes

The project being proposed is intended to further automate the process of keeping an inventory of the three 2000 gallon fuel tanks connected to Buchholz Oil’s Automated Fueling System (AFS). The AFS is set up for customers to use a key/pin combination to purchase gasoline, #2 diesel fuel, or premier diesel fuel, and receive their bill at the end of the month. Due to government regulations the company must keep an inventory of the amount of fuel in the tanks. The reason for the government regulation is that if any of the underground pipes leading from the tanks to the pumps began leaking, the discrepancy between the fuel level inside the tanks and the expected fuel levels would indicate the existence of the leak. The current method for entering this data involves writing down the level of fuel in each tank (in inches), the amount of fuel put into the tank (in gallons), and the total value displayed on each of pump (the previous day’s total is subtracted from it to obtain the total gallons sold that day). This data is first written down by hand and the tanks, and is then entered into a spreadsheet where it calculated at the end of the month. While this method is an improvement over the method used 5 years ago, of doing all the calculations by hand, it is still inefficient and any fuel leakage could take up to a month to discover. The proposed project will allow the data to be input directly into a portable computing device, which will then be transferred to the spreadsheet that day, rather than waiting until the end of the month.



Adam Eichelberger
Client: Concordia University Wisconsin

The purpose of this project is to replace BannerWeb’s current automated PIN reset system with a safer and more secure method. Currently, the BannerWeb automated reset system is extremely insecure and not utilized by any of the Concordia University’s due to that lack of proper authentication. As such, my project consists of Chucking out the current system entirely and replacing it with a new, safe system, built from the tables up within Banner itself.

Secondly, this project also encompasses a reporting system wherein the I.T. Helpdesk can view a certain period of time in recent PIN history to track, find, and fix problems users have using the system long after its initial designer has gone.
Why I Chose This Project:

The project encapsulates a number of things I hope to do in my professional career: namely, database administration, and user services. From this perspective, it seemed only natural for me to pick something to do with a large database such as Banner, or to find a client who wanted a smaller database and build it for him. Fortunately, the need for this little project came about at just the right time.

From another angle, being a Helpdesk worker at times, I can empathize with the Helpdesk staff and the user base, who both many times feel that having to call the desk every time to get a PIN number is a hassle. There are times when the desk simply isn’t open, such as two in the morning, and having an automated service would create a 24/7 service for the user, while simultaneously allowing the Helpdesk to pursue other ways of aiding the customer.
Project Name:
Secure Automated PIN Request System (SAPRS).


Robert Russell
Client: St. Paul Grafton Church

At my church, my youth leader has a problem keeping track of information about people and events. The main focus is that it is time consuming for Tim to keep track of several people and events that are largely spread out on several spreadsheets and this information is only accessable to him. My project is called the St. Paul Youth Coordinator (SPYC pronounced "spicy"). The goal of this project is to organize all of the information that deals with both people and events in one program and streamline the management work needed to maintain this and other information. Instead of using spreadsheets I will use a database that will hold all of the information, and a dynamic web based front end will be the interface. Using sessions, I plan to secure a website so that Tim may log in and be able to do various administration tasks. These include adding, updating, viewing, and deleting both people and events in the database. With the full functionality of the program Tim can do all the essential parts of his job dealing with finances, sorting dates for events, checking to see who is active or not, birthdays, graduations, and other various but useful information. Youth will be able to view only their own information and limited information dealing with events, both via sessions. Youth should also be able to keep track of their hours they spend at events and see how much money they make individually at fundraisers. Also a calendar of events needs to be made so that everyone knows the current status and times of all events. One of the most complicated parts of this project is recording what people do at each event. For instance, when a youth wants to join an event that youth must be associated with that event, but part of the requirements state that the time a person spends at each event must be recorded and that could be a variable amount of times pertaining to that single or multiple events. The coding will be done in PHP, HTML, and JavaScript. The Database of choice will be MySQL.

The reason why I choose this project is because, first and foremost, I wanted to contribute something to my youth group at St. Paul in Grafton. My youth leader asked me a while a go about making him a project to help him manage his paperwork. His main reason why he wants this project to be done is so that he can focus more on the youth and less on the paperwork. An automated computerized solution is the best way to go about this problem. The second part is because I originally wanted to do a database project and this problem is ideal for it. Ever since taking CSC 450 with Dr. Williams, I really enjoyed working with databases and found them interesting and enjoyable. When I graduate I hope to either become a database administrator or a systems administrator.

News published by the Computer Science Department

Concordia University Wisconsin