Real Systems, Real Clients

For Dr. Ryan McFall, scholarship often takes the form of software. “I work with my students to build real systems for real clients,” says McFall, a professor of computer science. Many of those clients are colleagues from the Hope community. In 2017, Hope’s Physical Plant staff came to McFall with a request: find a more efficient, computerized way to keep track of all the campus keys distributed to contractors day in and day out. A team of students from McFall’s senior seminar course analyzed the problem and, under his supervision, built software that will serve as a valuable tool for the Physical Plant team. This spring and summer, another team of students is developing new charting software for Hope’s nursing students. Collaborating with Tricia Kragt and Dr. Vicki Voskuil of the Department of Nursing, McFall and his students will create a simulated version of the software used in hospitals. Thanks to McFall, Hope graduates will enter the nursing profession already trained on the kinds of systems they’ll encounter in the healthcare industry.