Students in the Computer Science Capstone (Senior Seminar in Software Engineering) in Spring 2026 worked on four projects that can benefit Southwestern students in the coming years. Students presented their final projects at special sessions for CS capstones, as well as with posters at Southwestern’s Research and Creative Works Symposium and at the 37th annual Consortium for Computer Sciences in Colleges: South Central region conference at McNeese State University on April 24th, 2026. All projects were supervised by Lord Chair and Professor of Computer Science Barbara Anthony. The 8 students who traveled to the CCSC conference (funded by Southwestern) are pictured above.

Aaron Garza, Evelyn Harrington, Reid Williams and Eleanor Wagner, pictured below and with some Chunch (Church lunch) volunteers created a “Chunch Volunteer Management System” to replace the manual and time-consuming process that was previously used by Crestview Baptist Church to coordinate the volunteers needed for this free and popular student lunch.

Cade Doehler, Aidan Fitzgerald, Camille James, and Nhi ‘Amy’ Tran developed Pantry Inventory Review and Tracking Enhancement (PIRATE) with Nhi ‘Amy’ Tran ’26 to support the Pirate Pantry which works to combat food insecurity among students on campus. 

Frank Desilets, Alyanna Martinez, Emilio Salas, and Evan Williams created the SU University Knowledge Assistant. an AI-powered tool to answer student questions about the Southwestern University curriculum, drawing on catalog knowledge and the courses a student has taken, in order to complement traditional academic advising, ensuring students have the information to make informed decisions. Their work won 5th prize in the poster competition at CCSC:SC.

Aidan Balakrishnan, Tanner Klein, Ben McKallip, and Matthew Volkin developed “Matching with your Pirate Crew”, an app that allows students to provide some demographic information and swipe to indicate their interest in certain attributes in order to be matched with student organizations on campus that align with their interests.

Two capstone students also presented separate research work at the conference. Evelyn Harrington and Camille James work with Dr. Barbara Anthony on “What Differentiates a BA from a BS in CS? Insights from Liberal Arts Colleges in the CCSC:SC Region” won 4th prize in the poster competition.