The five began the competition armed only with a concept for their app and, per the rules of the contest, no other work completed ahead of time. Using an array of programming languages -- HTML5, CSS3, PHP, MySQL and Javascript -- and a handful of data sets provided by the organizers -- weather and farm information and a recipe database, for example -- they set to work. Fueled by free food from local vendors and yes, the occasional energy drink, they emerged 24 hours later with a tool that would allow users to decide where to source local produce and farm goods based on precipitation around the state. Locations with average rainfall are indicated as the best bets for quality, local produce. The program is also designed to find a recipe using the ingredients selected.

"It was a good app," Erickson says of the group's efforts at the hackathon. "Conceptually it's fantastic. It solves a problem. That's what computer science is all about, and those problems can exist in any space."

The team credits their win, in part, with how they chose to package and present the tool to the judges. Although weary from being awake for 34 hours at that point, they were agile enough to focus the presentation on a main point of the competition: providing a service to the state. "Sell them Vermont," Eldridge says was his mantra when presenting. "Don't sell them my app -- sell them Vermont." Of service in that mission was the savvy design, which featured a picturesque background photo taken by a friend of blue skies, fall foliage and a split-rail fenced field and an earthy, green, brown and blue color scheme.

Although the back-end functionality is in place to carry out each of the app's features, a time crunch prevented the group from synching up the recipe mechanism, for example, with the user interface. "If we only had three more hours!" Eldridge says. Completing the app is a project the group may take up back at 332 Votey, when not occupied by the academic support they provide to peers or the programming jobs they occasionally work on for professors or community members.

The CS Crew experience, they say, was a strong foundation for the success they found at HackVT. "In programming classes, you learn how to program by yourself," Eldridge explains, "but out in the real world, you don't typically program by yourself. You program with a group of people. CS Crew is there so you can meet all your peers and form a community and a network with them."

"I was so impressed that everybody was so on top of their own specific stuff and everyone was willing to help out," Vendeville says of the group. "It was a fantastic team environment. There were no jagged edges."

With the hackathon behind them and the end of the fall semester looming, each of the seniors are beginning to ponder their options post graduation. Google is mentioned by a few, particularly Vendeville, who earlier this year was one of eight nationwide recipients of a Google Student Veterans Association Scholarship for Computer Science. That award came with $10,000 and an all-expense paid trip in June to the Googleplex in Mountain View, Ca. "That's the dream job," he says.

When considering his next step, MacEwan, energized by the win at HackVT, turns to his friends and asks with a grin, "Start-up, anyone?"

E-mail invitations to undergraduates in the CS department and promises of pizza yielded a turnout of 23 students.  CS Juniors and Seniors offered their insights into the courses and the instructors teaching them.  Students were encouraged to engage their instructors and to take advantage of office hours offered by their instructors and the CS Crew.

We look forward to seeing all of the new faces in the CS Crew lab again.

The CS Crew would like to thank Chair Dinitz for the support he has given us to make this event possible.

The night also gave CS Crew great exposure.  We saw many new faces and hope to see them using the CS Crew lab again soon.

The CS Crew would like to thank Chair Dinitz for the support he has given us to make this event possible.

In preparation of the course review, the CS Crew, through faculty advisor Robert Erickson, requested that the faculty provide additional information on the courses they would be teaching in order to flesh out the descriptions given in the course catalog. A number of professors and lecturers responded, a deed for which many students were grateful.

E-mail invitations to undergraduates in the CS department, coupled with promises of pizza, yielded a strong turnout for the Computer Science department, of 27 students. The discussion did not focus only on courses offered, and included helpful hints on how to get the most from an instructor, no matter the course.

Students were encouraged to ask questions of their instructors when they did not understand subject matter, to seek out help from their instructors during their office hours, as well as to make the most of CS Crew help hours and other resources available to them.

The review left students with the feeling that they could succeed in the Computer Science department; that they were not alone on their academic path.