Tag Archives: capstone

The time has come for our graduating seniors in the Emerging Media and Communications program to showcase their capstone projects that they have been working hard on for the past semester. Many of these students have been thinking about this project for their entire Undergraduate or Graduate career here at UT Dallas. This year the Arts & Humanities school really wanted to make this presentation a celebration of our students’ outstanding work.

This year a prize of $250 will be awarded to one outstanding undergraduate and one graduate. We will provide light refreshments and snacks during intermission.

If you are not able to attend the celebration because you are out of town, don’t fret because we will be recording the event and will post a video on our YouTube channel after the event. Also, if you would like to follow the Twitter chatter surrounding the event, you can follow the event hashtag, #emacC2.

View the program notes online.

Looking for capstone registration? Are you worried because it doesn’t appear in Coursebook? Don’t worry, there will be capstones in the Fall. The course just does not appear in Coursebook. To register for capstone you should download the Undergraduate capstone form or the Graduate capstone form, and talk to the professor you want to supervise your project. Keep in mind that each professor only has a limited number of students that he or she can supervise, so you want to talk to that professor sooner rather than later. Also in the Fall semester Capstone meetings will be Tuesday evenings. This doesn’t mean you will meet every Tuesday evening, but it does mean that several Tuesday’s out of the semester you will be required to meet as a group (i.e. don’t take classes from 5:00-10:00pm on Tuesday as that would make it impossible for you to meet).

This summer EMAC senior Joe Posada-Triana was selected to attend a national session of the LeaderShape Institute. A seven day immersive leadership training for students, LeaderShape focuses on empowering leaders “to create a just, caring, thriving world”. Joe’s attendance at LeaderShape was the culmination of his year long experience as a NASPA Undergraduate Fellow, a mentoring program for students looking to gain experience and knowledge in the field of higher education and student affairs.http://www.naspa.org/programs/nufp/

Joe Posada-Triana

Part of the LeaderShape Institute is to spend time working on a vision that has a positive impact on your campus, community, and even the world. Joe dedicated his vision to a non-profit that he has been working on for the past year:

“The whole week was just an amazing experience because it helped me learn new things about myself and also pushed me into fifth gear in my vision to create a non-profit that provides first generation latino/a student’s the resources they need to attend college.” See Joes post on the leadershape blog.

Joe and his colleagues at Great Minds are using blogs, Facebook, text messages, and more to create an academic support network for first generation Latino/a students. He plans to continue working on Great Minds for his senior capstone project, and hopes to see the project continue well into the future.

If you live in Dallas, and you want to taste the best the food truck business has to offer, graduating senior Jamie Field has a website for you: Roach Coach Reviews

Roach Coach Reviews

Roach Coach Reviews was part of Jamie’s senior capstone, a project all seniors must complete as part of their last semester in the program. For this project Jamie combined her interest in sampling the culinary offerings of Dallas food trucks with the knowledge and skills she learned as an EMAC student.

The website Jamie built contains reviews, video blogs, and interviews with local food trucks. It also serves as one stop shop to find all of the food truck related news in the Dallas area. The site contains not only a calendar of upcoming food truck events, and a list of the local trucks, but also a way to find where your current favorite truck is.

More than a single website, Roach Coach Reviews reflects a whole enterprise, complete with Facebook page, Twitter account and a growing network of followers. “With an explosion in food truck popularity, the number of trucks is on the rise. Previously, only social media outlets were a resource for updates like new menu items or truck locations/schedules. We developed ‘Roach Coach Reviews’ to serve as your DFW food truck information portal,” says Jamie.

Jamie’s project is not only the best food truck site in the Metroplext, but also an excellent example of the kind of media-literacy EMAC students build in their years in the program.

In Fall 2012, Desiree Jacob completed her capstone project, The Quiet Struggle (http://thequietstruggle.net), as part of the degree requirements for the Masters of Arts in Emerging Media and Communication.

The Quiet Struggle

When Desiree began thinking about her capstone, she wanted to explore the impact of social media on adoption processes. She began by looking at scholarly research on the effects of adoption, particularly open adoption, on the adoptee. She then completed several case studies to examine what types of digital resources were already available on the topic. These two steps gave her a solid theoretical foundation and helped her realize that one of the areas that needed development was in telling the stories of all members of the adoption triad – the birth parents, adoptive parents, and the adoptee. Thus, she began work on “The Quiet Struggle.”

According to Desiree, “Many adoption myths persist in our society. Understanding details on the topic of adoption is something that all members of the triad (adoptee, birth mom and adoptive parents) should be more educated and aware of before decisions are made.” On the site, Desiree collects testimonials from all members of the triad, blogs about her own experience, and shares news about adoption.

EMAC Assistant Professor Kim Knight, Desiree’s capstone supervisor, observes, “One of the things that is exemplary about “The Quiet Struggle” is that Desiree has used her passion to construct a project with social benefit for an audience with very specific needs. She has a growing pool of readers and people are coming forward to share their stories on the site, both of which speak to the quality of the project.”

Desiree will continue to work on “The Quiet Struggle” after her MA is awarded. In her final paper for the project, Desiree reflected, “knowing that there are others who have gone through similar experiences can provide reassurance that these feelings and experiences are “normal” (whatever normal is). I also believe that by more of us opening up and talking freely about our experiences, we can help bring an end to the secrecy and taboo that surrounds adoption and hopefully increase understanding of how complex adoption really is.”

You can access “The Quiet Struggle” at http://thequietstruggle.net and follow Desiree on Twitter at http://twitter.com/desireejacob

Students from the Emerging Media and Communications (EMAC) program will present projects that examine how new media and network technologies are transforming the ways we connect with each other.

Dr. David Parry helps students explore the changing world of media and communication in the EMAC program.

The presentations are Tuesday, Dec. 4, from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in CB3 1.306.

Desiree Jacob, a master’s candidate, created a website and blog that details her own journey as an adopted child, and aims to educate others about adoption. Her project is called The Quiet Struggle.

“Many adoption myths persist in our society.  Understanding details on the topic of adoption is something that all members of the triad (adoptee, birth mom and adoptive parents) should be more educated and aware of before decisions are made,” writes Jacob on her blog.

Dr. Kim Knight, assistant professor in the EMAC program, served as faculty advisor for the project.

A project by Desiree Jacob (right) seeks to educate the public about issues regarding adoption.

“One of the things that is exemplary about “The Quiet Struggle” is that Desiree has used her passion to construct a project with social benefit for an audience with very specific needs. She has a growing pool of readers and people are coming forward to share their stories on the site, both of which speak to the quality of the project,” said Knight.

Jamie Field, a senior, will present her project Roach Coach Review. The website tracks the location, and gives reviews, of various food trucks across the Metroplex.

“With an explosion in food truck popularity, the number of trucks is on the rise. Previously, only social media outlets were a resource for updates like new menu items or truck locations/schedules. We developed ‘Roach Coach Reviews’ to serve as your DFW food truck information portal,” the website states.

The faculty advisor for the project was Dr. David Parry, assistant professor.

“Jamie has combined all the skills she learned as an EMAC student with her interest in food trucks to create a high-quality website that serves as Dallas’ best food truck review site. Not only does the site contain reviews, but also schedules, videos, maps and links,” said Parry.

Other projects to be presented include graduate student Aline McKenzie’s trail media for Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center. McKenzie produced video that can be accessed via QR code along the trails at the center. The videos cover topics ranging from identifying poison ivy to the history behind a concrete basin that once housed a telecommunications tower and antenna but now has a garden and deck inside.

“Aline did a lot of really great research on the history of media use in national park settings as part of this project. She has used this knowledge as a foundation to construct educational media that taps into the growing use of mobile Internet access while being respectful of the natural setting. In addition, she is gaining valuable experience in working in partnership with a community organization,” said Knight, who oversaw the project.

The event is free and open to the public.

Ninja Nuggets: Kamikaze Kapers — a strategic, turn-based puzzle game developed by Arts and Technology students Steven Foskett and Chris Krueger — has been released on Apple’s App Store.

The game features a scientist captured by a clan of sentient chicken nuggets and forced to undergo rigorous training to help them fight a war against their ancient rivals. The player’s job is to deploy the clan’s secret weapon: honorable kamikaze warriors who explode into highly volatile sauce, “the deadliest substance known to nugget-kind.”

The project began as a class assignment in spring 2011. “The process of development started very informally,” said Steven Foskett. By fall, Foskett and Krueger had designed the core game — although some refinement was needed.  “I asked Dr. Monica Evans if Chris and I could use it as our capstone, and she gave us the green light,” notes Foskett. “Most of my free time that semester was spent frantically programming, fixing bugs and implementing new features like a store to upgrade your character and the explosive nuggets he lays.”

The game was released on Feb. 17, 2012 on the Apple’s App Store and requires iOS 3 or later.

The team also has Ninja Nuggets t-shirts, bumper stickers, keychains and pillows available on Zazzle.