CSC News

Bitzer Creativity Awards Presented to Boyuka and Goel

Congratulations to Drew Boyuka and Jay Goel, seniors in the department of computer science at NC State University, who have been awarded Donald L. Bitzer Creativity Awards. 

Boyuka and Goel created an Autonomous Glockenspiel as their final project for their CSC 453 Wireless Sensor Networks class where they had been learning to program Sun SPOT embedded devices.  The SPOTs have pins which can be programmed to output current.  The pins are connected to solenoids, devices that actuate when current passes through them.  When the SPOTs’ output pins are turned on, they power the solenoid, which actuates and taps the instrument’s keys.  The students wrote software to read MIDI files and tell the SPOTs which solenoid to turn on at which time, allowing them to play a melody.

Established by Dr. Donald L. Bitzer, Distinguished University Research Professor, and his wife Maryann, the Bitzer Creativity Award was created to recognize and encourage creativity in undergraduate computer science students.  “Creativity is thinking outside the box,” says Dr. Bitzer.  To encourage students to look at problems creatively, he presents two creativity awards each year.

~coates~