There are two Software Development Lab instructors for next year. Some of the following projects are assigned to a specific instructor, but others will be determined based on interest. Continuing projects include both those under current development and ones that were developed in the past. In some cases the technology is specified, but in others the team can help pick the technology with the product owner’s approval. Projects are generally in alphabetical order and numbered for convenience.
We will send a survey to all students who are likely to take SDL in the fall. The students will rank the projects by order of interest; instructors will form the teams based on the interests. We are generally able to place everyone in one of their top choices, but this is not always possible. If a student does not rank projects, then that student will be assigned to whatever team has open positions. You will work on the project for a year, so it is important that you express your interests. If there is a reason that you must be in a particular section of SDL, send a message to the coordinator (Dr. Hasker).
Do not worry if a project uses a technology that you are not familiar with. You will have time to learn it, and in fact learning new technologies is one of the good things about SDL!
PO: J. Lehsten of Collins Aerospace
New project: Collins Aerospace develops systems for commercial and private aircraft as well as other systems including space travel. They are sponsoring a project to develop a test suite for applications that are part of an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB), a software system used to hold key reference information needed by a flight crew. This test suite will be designed to ensure that applications running on the EFB properly implement connection protocols, data transfers, error handling, and security. This system will contribute to improving safety, reliability, and efficiency of EFB communications in modern aircraft. The technologies for the project have yet to be determiend.
PO: TBD, DSAC Faculty Member
Continuing project: When an academic program is being evaluated for accreditation or a faculty member is being reviewed for promotion or retention, they need sample work from various courses. In many cases, the courses are in Canvas, but capturing data from Canvas is challenging because it is not formatted correctly. Canvas also makes it challenging for students to see all comments from graded work. Previous teams have built a system to record the data, but it fails on many assignment types. It would also be useful to support automatically sending grading feedback to students. This project would be to update the existing system and add new features. This is a Typescript project using NodeJS and the Canvas API.
PO: City of Milwaukee representative
Project new to SDL: An intern developed a system to match resumes against possible jobs for the city of Milwaukee. Users would upload their resume, the system would identify potential jobs, and it would identify any gaps between the user’s knowledge and the skills needed for the job. This is described by this video. A number of additional features are needed. This is a services-based project with an existing code base, the programming language is unknown.
PO: Dr. Hasker
Continuing project: If you have not used eSubmit in a course, you probably will before you graduate. It is a system used to run code on sample inputs and capture the output to speed up debugging and grading. The 2025–26 team completely redesigned the system around a more modern version of Rails and to introduce more modern styling. This redesign has opened up new possibilities in the user interface and features. For example, it might be interesting to see how Generative AI could be integrated so give students more help with understanding errors. This is a Ruby on Rails project.
PO: TBD, likely an attorney at a local law firm
New project: Existing systems for legal case management are designed around very large cases. This project would be to design a more minimal-feature system that would allow attorneys to track clients, case description and status, related documents, physical evidence, billing, expenses, and court dates. This would be a web-based product, but the details of the platform would be determined by the team.
PO: Prof. Jones
Continuing project: This project is to develop a assembly language training tool. Students will use it to write, assemble, debug, run, and visualize programs in the PLP assembly language through a custom Integrated Development Environment. Previous teams have built a JavaFX-based GUI system, and the AY27 team will add additional features. This project has the potential of impacting many students who study assembly programming.
PO: TBD
Continuing project: An AY26 team developed a website and mobile app to support tenants, managers, employees, and vendors in property rental. Additional features are needed in such areas as maintenance requests, storing information about contractors, supporting online rent paymets, scheduling showing hours, and many others. This is a JavaScript/React project.
PO: High School Principal Murry
Continuing project: An AY26 team developed a video-based tutoring system for a local high school. This project will add additional features such as linking a student’s notes to videos, view video transcripts within a student’s learning page, and captures student-specific information. This is a JavaScript/React project.
PO: Michael Timm of Reflo
New project for SDL: The goal of this project is to develop a game that conveys how societal choices affect city waterways. A first level has already been developed. This level focuses on the history of water in Milwaukee. The goal of this project is to add another level that explores both the current state of water in Milwaukee and its future. For details, see this page. This project is written in C++ using the Unity library.