MEDIA ADVISORY

Whether tackling property tax billing in Nenana or routing police personnel rotations for the North Pole Police Department, each year computer science student teams at the University of Alaska Fairbanks tackle class projects that provide real-world experience and benefit Alaskan communities. Monday, Jan. 10 is the deadline for local government, public service and private organizations to submit proposals to UAF's Department of Mathematical Sciences for the spring 2000 computer software development class.

Proposals submitted will be considered by students in the senior project and professional practice course. Requests must be received by 5 p.m. on Monday via e-mail to ffpjk@uaf.edu or by regular mail to the UAF Department of Mathematical Sciences, P.O. Box 756660, Fairbanks, Alaska, 99775-1110.

Last spring two projects were chosen for development, including a scheduling program for Alaska Youth Soccer and a search program for Information Insights, a Fairbanks-based company, to be used in health care applications. Student computer scientists have designed and implemented many different software applications since the course was first offered more than a decade ago.

"Clients" who have benefited from the student software projects include the Alaska Court System, the Fairbanks North Star Borough and Fairbanks Taxi Inc., to name a few. Typical prices for commercial, custom software development projects like those done by student teams can run as high as $40,000, but there is no charge for projects completed through UAF's computer software course.

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