Our client, LGL Limited, is one of North America’s leading ecological research companies. The Bristol Bay Capstone team will develop a system that will introduce hand-held computers and custom database management to a fish data collection program in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Currently, the data is manually collected at multiple locations, and summarized and distributed using a legacy Fortran which does not allow statistical manipulation or queries to be performed on the data. As a result, valuable time is wasted by staff re-entering data into Excel spreadsheets in order to produce the reports required to aid in fishery management.
The new system will increase efficiency and accuracy in data collection and management, allow redistribution of funds towards more research (as a result of costs savings to the program), and provide technicians with more informative and precise data summaries and reports.
The project is divided into two main phases. For the first phase, the Bristol
Bay Capstone team will design an easy-to-use interface for handheld computers
that will utilize digital calipers and a digital scale for direct data input.
The handheld computers will be used by sampling technicians who travel to various
fish-processing plants in Alaska to take samples from fish. These handheld computers,
produced by Juniper Systems, are ideal for use in the physical environment of
a fish processing plant because of their durability. The second phase of the
project is to develop a MS Access database which will receive and store the
data from the handheld computers. The database will generate detailed data summaries
and charts, and allow technicians to easily access and manipulate the data via
a query engine.
LGL Environmental Research Associates |
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