Out of eight UMKC students selected to participate in the Google Community Leaders program, five are from UMKC’s School of Computing and Engineering.
The Google Community Leaders program is designed to provide small business owners and other community organizations with tools and resources to build an online presence, and to improve the web literacy of Kansas City. The program will last for one year, giving the students the opportunity to train these organizations and narrow the digital divide.
EyeVerify, a Kansas City startup based on technology developed by UMKC School of Computing and Engineering Associate Professor Reza Derakhshani, Ph.D., continues to gain accolades.
Most recently, the eyeprint verification company has been selected as one of eight finalists in the national entrepreneurship competition, ‘Get in the Ring’, hosted by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. See the UMKC Today article for more information.
An interdisciplinary group of researchers, Dr. ZhiQiang Chen (Civil Engineering), Dr. Yugyung Lee (Computer Science), and their graduate students, Jianfei (Max) Chen (Electrical Engineering) and Feichen Shen (Computer Science), at the UMKC School of Computing and Engineering have developed a new approach for reporting damaged infrastructure: a smartphone-based application geared towards real-time damage quantification and collaborative decision making. According to the ASCE’s Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, the GPA for the infrastructure’s condition and performance is currently rated at a D+. In addition, the monetary investment needed to repair the infrastructure to maintain a functional state (that is, to get a grade of B) is $3.6 trillion by the year 2020. Such a tremendous investment demands a critical need – innovative and rapid technologies for civil infrastructure condition assessment. Different from a Google Street View application, the app seamlessly integrates mobile imaging, interactive analytics, and cloud computing, all processed in the real time.
UMKC Civil Engineering student Levon Saiyan was recently awarded a $1,500 scholarship by the ICRI Great Plains Chapter after a competitive evaluation of other applicants.
Levon is an active member of the School of Computing and Engineering, serving as UMKC’s Chapter President of EWB (Engineers Without Borders). This year, EWB is working to build a bridge in Vallecito, Panama.
The International Concrete Repair Institute – Great Plains Chapter encompasses Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Western Iowa, and was founded to improve the quality of repair, restoration, and protection of concrete. This year, three scholarships were awarded to deserving students within the region.
