Ancestor Project Logo
Team Members
  • Troy Verrin - vtek@shaw.ca
  • Max Lang - max_the_man1@yahoo.com
Clients
  • Dr. Marla Weston - Camosun College Computer Science Department
  • Dianne Biin - Camosun College Aboriginal Eductation and Community Connections Department
Faculty Supervisor
  • Saryta Schaerer
Client Background

Camosun College welcomed its first students in 1971 and now serves approximately 12,500 learners registered in degree, diploma and certificate programs. A further 7,400 registrants are enrolled in courses offered through the Continuing Education department. Of these learners, over 700 Aboriginal students from 50 Nations, including Métis and Inuit groups, are enrolled at Camosun. Camosun has a vibrant Aboriginal Education and Community Connections department which offers services and programs for Aboriginal students and facilitates links between the college and First Nations communities and Aboriginal organizations.

Project Description

The goal of this pilot project is to engage Aboriginal youth in computer science careers. The project will teach youth to develop their own computer-generated games or animated stories using the proven educational software environment Alice, created by Carnegie-Mellon Hall University. To make the experience more relevant to Aboriginal youth, the project included the development of a library of cultural images and sounds. Youth will use this library to develop their games and stories and to explore their own unique history within their community and natural environment. The pilot project will span three years and will be completed in three phases; it will involve both urban and remote tribal locations. This is phase one of the project; subsequent Camosun CST students will continue development over the next two years.

Team Background

The Ancestor Project team is a highly motivated, upbeat team of technologically-minded individuals. With experience using multiple technologies including Oracle, MySQL, Php, Java and Alice, team members Troy Verrin and Max Lang can effectively solve any problem in a professional and timely manner, consistently producing quality results.

We would like to thank Camosun College for the opportunity to work on the Ancestor Project!

Ancestor Project Photo