A CS 4784 capstone course “Technology on the Trail” will be offered at Virginia Tech in Spring Semester 2018. [Note: the course is also listed as a grad special topics CS 6724 course, with slightly different expectations.] The 3-hour course will meet weekly for 3 hours on Friday afternoons to examine and define ways that technology can influence hiking and outdoor experiences—both in positive and negative ways—for individuals and groups. The course will involve hands-on exploration of technologies that have promise for use on trails, and there will be opportunities to obtain, design and program, and evaluate technology on the trail.
It is expected that the course will attract a small but diverse set of participants with interest and expertise in one or more of hiking, walking, personal tracking devices, health and wellness (physical and spiritual), human computer interaction, quantified self, mobile computing and technologies, and in-the-wild evaluations. It is strongly recommended that you have completed CS 3724 (Intro to HCI) and CS 3714 (Mobile Software Design), but relevant other courses and experiences can be substituted at the instructor’s discretion. Interested potential participants should email the course instructor, Dr. Scott McCrickard, indicating interest and experience in these topics and courses. The course is targeted for undergraduate students but grad students who are interested in a similar course experience with more of a focus on reading and writing are encouraged to consider the CS 6724 version of the course.
Technology on the Trail 