EECS News Final 1.30.indd - Electrical Engineering and Computer ...

EECS Designs Win in Cerner Competition
By Jill Hummels
In December 2006, EECS students earned first place in the Cerner
Corporation Software Design Competition. KU students along
with those from Kansas State University, the University of Iowa,
and Purdue University presented software they had developed
for a specialized PDA. The PDA would present, collect, and tie
together patient information and other essential data needed by
health care providers. Executives at the Kansas City-based healthcare
software development firm judged the semester-long projects.
EECS students Samantha Cook, John Heideman, Jeff Unger,
and Jonathan VanEenwyk received first place. Members of the
winning team each received a PDA.
“The students did an outstanding job. I knew we had the potential
to perform well in this challenge,” says Arvin Agah, EECS
associate professor and instructor of the Software Development
Lifecycle course. “From an engineering perspective, these are
strong schools to compete against. All the students had to draw
upon their best creative and technical skills in order to succeed.”
Fourteen KU computer science and computer engineering students
took part in the course, which employed a videoconference
learning environment to connect students from the four
universities with professionals at Cerner. The company provided
each of the nine student teams with a PDA on which to build, test,
and run their class project.
An EECS student tests software he
developed on a PDA provided by
Cerner. Teams developed software
for a specialized PDA that would
collect and present critical patient
information.
Photo by Jill Hummels
Just as in industry, students also learned the importance of planning.
“This course also teaches them project management,” says Agah. “You can’t be crisis driven. To be
good, you have to plan.”
According to Stephen Smith, senior learning strategist with Cerner, Cerner’s associates committed
between 500 and 700 hours to developing and delivering the course, above and beyond their day-today
responsibilities.
“You can’t be crisis driven.
To be good, you have to plan.”
~ Arvin Agah
course instructor
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