Students from the TCU Computer Science department will be presenting their yearlong projects at the North Texas Area Student Conference (NTASC) this Saturday.

Eric Elsken, a senior computer science and mathematics double major, says the computer science department requires all computer science and computer information technology majors to complete the course/project. The projects are student-led and are completed in one academic year.

“The point of the presentations are for computer science students to give a 20 minute presentation to other students and faculty over what we have been doing the past year,” Elsken said.

The groups will leave TCU on Friday and attend Saturday’s conference to present their group projects and hear the keynote speaker, a Project Manager from Microsoft.

The NTASC website states, “the North Texas Area Student Conference (NTASC) is designed to provide a forum for graduate and undergraduate students in computer-related studies to present their projects, research efforts or classroom experience to their peers.”

Donnell Payne, associate professor of computer science, is the faculty adviser for one of the capstone groups.

“It provides a good forum for students to stand up and present their work to students and faculty from other colleges and universities in the area,” said Payne.

“Participation in NTASC is a good opportunity for students to learn to prepare accurate, well-organized presentations that are delivered with strict time constraints,” she said.

Matthew Spector, senior computer information technology major, is a member of one of capstone groups, TouchCU.

“TouchCU is a program for Windows 8 that turns any flat surface into a multi-touch screen using the Microsoft Kinect for Windows and a standard projector,” Spector said. “We will be presenting all of the work we have done so far in regards to TouchCU at the conference.”

Both Spector and Elsken are looking forward to the conference as a practice for their final presentation in May. The computer science department as well as members of the College of Science and Engineering industry advising board will attend this presentation.