# **Code Swarm Summer 2020 - Virtual Edition**

# Theme: "Coding for the Culture"

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# Phase I - The Design Phase

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## Introduction

Culture credits are extra credits that are earned when a student attends an event or talk within the deparment. Culture credits are commonly used to obtain an extra perecentage towards a student's overall grade in a class of their choice. With that being said, the department has realized it is time to *upgrade* our culture credit system. In Phase I, we are challenging you all to come up a detailed design of how we can revamp and optimize our culture credit system with the hope that it can be used across the division! The way the system currently works is as follows:

1. A student attends an event and signs the sign-in sheet with his or her name and ID number.
1. At the end of the semester, the information on the sign-in sheets for all events must be entered into a computer.
1. The information for each attendee is put into the template and printed out for each and every culture credit event.
1. Students collect their culture credits and must then give them to the professors of the classes to which they would like them applied.

This challenge will require each team to familiarize themeselves with the design thinking processes. By definition design thinking is the cognitive, strategic and practical processes by which design concepts (proposals for new products, buildings, machines, etc.) are developed.


## Problem Statement
Teams are tasked to come up with a new innovative way to distribute culture credits within our Department. We are looking for the each team to come up with a unique applicaiton designed to store the names of students who have earned these credits and distribue them at the end of the semester. The actual coding and implementation of that design is not necessary for this portion of the hackathon. Instead we are asking that teams consider the **user interface**, **user experience** and **backend system** that will be required for the design to be implemented at a later point.

## Rules
* Hackathon teams must be a **maximum** of 3 people
* Teams are allowed to reference all outside sources including but not limited to members of the CS board and department faculty
* All work should be done during the course of the hackathon
* Work should be submitted by Thursday, July 2, 2020 at 11:59pm.

## Judging Criteria

**Judges will weigh each criteria equally.**

Here are the categories that judges will be voting on:

**Idea**
* Does the team address the stated problem?
* How relevant is the idea for solving the prompt?
* Is the idea innovative?

**Implementation**
* Has the team visualized their idea? I.e. with an app mockup or through wireframes?
* How well does the proposed solution address the main issues and are different use cases considered?

**Design**
* Has the team put thought into the user experience?
* Is the design logically and technically feasible?
* Can this design be scaled for multiple users?
* How well designed is the interface?

**Presentation**
* Did the team present their idea clearly and as a team?
* Was the presentation material legible and easier to understand?
* The team seemed well rehearsed and knowledgeable about their material.

## How to Submit

#### Presentation

Teams will be expected to submit their system design and then pitch their design to the judges. There should be some visual component to your pitch. For example:

- Powerpoint or Keynote
- Prezi
- Prototype (Figma, Zeplin, Adobe XD)

You may use these apps/websites or ones that are similar to them in order to create the visual portion of your presentation. We strongly advise that teams rehearse their material before their presentation.

[Submit Your Project Here!](https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=dj7gzBRiE0GZYcHA_rOmC7KCQPbCLPFCusRR5NBVVmpURFVJMUtIWDQ4RElBMzg1WjVTUTZNTU8zSSQlQCN0PWcu)

Use the link above to submit your project desing by no later than Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 11:59PM EST.

## Winning Team

Each member of the team with the winning design will win a $1,000 scholarship courtesy of the PEMaCS division.

**All** participants from Phase I will be given the opprotunity to move forward to Phase II, regardless if they were apart of the winning team. Once groups move forward to Phase II, they will have to implement the preferred design chosen from Phase I (the winning team's design).

## Remember!
**The competition is just one part of the hackathon. To make the most out of the event, try something new, teach other people, and design something you find fascinating!**

## Resources
- Figma (https://www.figma.com/)
- Design Thinking (https://www.agencyq.com/design-thinking-ebook)
- Adobe XD (https://www.adobe.com/?red=a)
- Zeplin (https://zeplin.io/)
- Keynote (https://www.apple.com/keynote/)
- Powerpoint