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Computer science students work on shark project

Students in the CSIT-in-3 program know a good opportunity when they see it.

CSIT-in-3 is a collaboration between CSU Monterey Bay and Hartnell College that enables students to earn a bachelor’s degree in computer science in three years. The program started in 2013 and has just admitted its second cohort of 32 students.

The university’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center was notified of an unpaid position for a student volunteer to work with Hopkins Marine Station’s Shark Baselines Project. When students learned of it, many of them wanted to participate.

“They need to have worked on projects to help them get internships,” said Katie Cunningham, computer science education coordinator. “And they know that.”

Hopkins needed people with coding skills, the ability to develop and manage mobile applications as well as develop dynamic web pages. Eight students volunteered for the project. Some wanted to work on the web pages, others liked the idea of developing apps for data collection and presentation.

“I recruited a whole team from CSUMB,” said Dr. Francesco Ferretti, a researcher at Hopkins. “The students are now working on different aspects of SharkPulse.”

SharkPulse is a smartphone app developed to involve citizen scientists in monitoring global shark populations. It allows people to upload their photos – with information about when and where the pictures were taken – to the Shark Baselines Project, where they can be studied.

“Right now we have five working groups: database development and management; IOS app; Android app; web application and front end; and social media mining,” Dr. Ferretti said. Students work with all of the groups.

“I’m happy with the students,” Dr. Ferretti said. “They seem very motivated and energetic.”