LOCAL
DECEMBER 15, 2013
5A
CU students build databases for refuge
BY MITCH MEADOR
STAFF WRITER
MMEADOR@LAWTON-CONSTITUTION.COM
Students in Cameron University instructor K. David
Smith’s applied data modeling class are again bringing
order to the chaos of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife
Refuge record-keeping systems.
Last year Smith’s students built a database to catalog a photo collection spanning 112 years. It saved so
much time hunting for old
photos that it was as if the
U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service
had
been able to
hire more
personnel.
Because
of its effectiveness,
refuge perHESS
sonnel asked
the class to
work on two additional databases this fall. One database
would be a similar catalog
of aerial photos, maps, blueprints,
drawings
and
scanned documents. The
other would provide a way
for volunteer coordinator
D’Anna Laminack to track
and manage refuge volunteers.
In thanking the class
members for their work,
Deputy Refuge Manager
Ralph Bryant said there are
approximately 350 individuals who volunteer their time
to assist the refuge. Some
may come only once a year,
while others report for duty
day after day, week after
week, giving the refuge
thousands of hours of their
time each year.
Refuge volunteer Carol
Stayer said that as an Air
Force mechanic for 20
years, she knows how important documentation is
and how important it is to be
able to pull it up later. Every
now and then a researcher
will show up asking for a
specific document, but
tracking it down can be
time-consuming.
Stayer was especially
grateful for the volunteer
database.
“I’ve always volunteered.
It adds quality to my life,
and it betters the organizations that affect my life. I’m
emotionally connected to
the refuge, and the way to
make the refuge better, the
way to make my life better,
is to be involved there,” she
said.
“In today’s world, where
every penny counts, and
there are so few pennies to
go around, volunteer hours
need to be tracked in a way
that’s systematic, a way that
they can pull them up, a way
that you can use them,” she
said.
Stayer also praised the
professionalism of the student presenters.
Smith had divided the
class into six teams. Three
teams worked on database
to catalog documents while
the other three built databases for the refuge volunteers. On Thursday students presented their results before the entire class.
It will now be up to refuge
officials which databases to
use.
“We do these service
learning projects for free,”
Smith said. “It’s all word of
mouth. … We look at the
ones each semester that
have been requested and
choose one that has the required rigor for the class.”
Bryant presented each
student in the class a certificate of appreciation and a
letter of recommendation,
which is the students’ payment for their contribution.
Food will be handed out
Feed the Children will
bring two truckloads of food
and Avon products to Lawton to be handed out between
9 a.m. and noon on Dec. 21.
Local co-sponsors of the
distribution are the Southwest Oklahoma Continuum
of Care and the Association
of the United States Army
(AUSA) Homeless Outreach Committee, according to Jervis Jackson, direc-
tor of the Continuum of
Care for Lawton Support
Services, Lawton Housing
Authority.
The giveaway will be at
the Faith-Based Church of
God, 1105 SW F Ave. People
are welcome to come and
pick up the items being distributed.
JEFF DIXON/STAFF
Cameron University senior Christopher Vicks describes the features
of the database that he and his fellow team members designed to
track volunteer hours for the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge as a
class project for applied data modeling.
“Cameron
University
wins, the client wins, the
student
wins,”
Smith
summed it up.
Some of the volunteer
databases were quite elaborate. They had separate tabs
for each volunteer with that
person’s contact information, hours worked, awards
received, uniforms issued,
driver’s license number,
tours they have been on and
any medical condition they
might have in case of an
emergency.
Smith said both databases
had some intricacies and little problems that had to be
overcome to make them
work the way refuge personnel wanted them to.
For one student, this project was very personal.
Michele “Shelly” Hess grew
up in Mount Sheridan Estates and worked at the old
refuge visitor center in
1985-86. More recently she
helped firefighters find
gates and fire hydrants to
build a backfire from Mount
Scott during the big fires of
2011.
“I have grown up working
on the wildlife refuge, volunteering many hours,
tromping on every part. I
love the history of the
wildlife refuge as well as
what it stands for. The beauty and the nature is wonderful,” she said.
Hess worked on the database for aerial maps and
historical documents and
said she was drawn to the
historical value of the project.
Demilade Adenuga, a
Cameron University junior
from Nigeria, said this project gave him practical experience. This was the first
time he had to interview a
customer to find out how to
address the client’s needs.
He liked getting to do “fun
stuff” rather than just sitting down and writing code
all the time. The letter of
recommendation will help
him build his resume for job
applications.
Anthony Law, a senior,
plans to enter the Air Force
after he graduates in May.
If that falls through, he
might work for his uncle,
who’s a district manager for
Amazon.com. If neither of
those work out, he has no
problem with being a database manager, and this project would be good experience for him. Law worked
long and hard on this project, putting in 25 hours just
within the last week, and
said he enjoyed it.
“I’m proud of my product.
It could have been a little bit
better, but I’m proud of
what we put out,” he said.
Tommie Walls, also a senior, works in Halliburton’s
machine shop in Duncan,
but he interned with Halliburton’s database department and became interested in the subject. He has
been with Halliburton for 18
years and was looking for a
way to further his career, so
he’s chasing a degree to
move up the ladder.
“It’s very interesting
stuff, there’s a big demand
for it, and it’s something I
think will be really good for
the future,” Walls said.
Mitchell Smith is a senior
majoring in computer information systems, and this
class was a requirement for
him. It’s his third or fourth
class with Smith, whom he
calls “a hoot,” and the instructor had warned him
what to expect. Mitchell
Smith didn’t know who his
client would be, so when the
interview process started
one week into the class, his
first question was, “Can we
come out and take a look?”
Smith said he hadn’t visited the refuge since the
1980s, and this time he was
looking at it with different
eyes. He’s been working for
the government as an accountant for more than 20
years, first for Stars and
Stripes and then the Defense Finance Accounting
System, and just recently
returned here to be with
family.
Hunter Hines grew up in
Claremore but attended
Duncan High School his
senior year. He used up two
years of a baseball scholarship as a pitcher for Connors State College before a
shoulder injury ended his
career. This is his second
year at Cameron, and he’s a
senior in information technology.
“A lot of it is programming. I had a minor in networking, and I feel like
that’s my go-to plan if programming doesn’t really
work out, but I’ve been doing that for about five years
now. It’s kind of a hobby. Really, the plan is to graduate
and get a good job somewhere, hopefully a bigger
corporation,” Hines said.
Hines admitted there
were parts he liked and
parts he didn’t like about
this project. He liked being
grouped with people from
diverse backgrounds and
being “technical, straight to
the point, building the databases. That was the fun
part. Hard, but fun.”