Students in the course are required to turn in final projects of various designs to demonstrate and apply their newly acquired technology:  Erik Hayes chose to create The Hazer Graver, an engraving machine which inscribes words into wood.  His project also featured a size selectable font-- no easy task for a high school programming student! Ben Hejl took on the challenge of creating a manipulator that automatically moved circular disks to solve the famous Towers of Hanoi puzzle.
 Other students in the class created equally challenging projects:  Andrew Reitano created an apparatus that moved chess pieces through Classic chess matches.  Drew Foster created and Automatic card dealer, which deals out the appropriate number of cards to an indicated number of players for any of several selected card games. Frank DeMartino created a three floor computer controlled Elevator, and Chris Messineo chose to design and create a CNC drill press designed to drill holes in printed circuit boards.  Lyndon Kennedy's mission was to convert, as he put it, slabs of wood into a computer controlled plotter which accepted Logo®-like commands to draw figures and letters on paper.
 The most in-depth robot project this year was Eric Burns miniature Saw Mill, which cut up raw lumber into planks of specified measurements.  His project also featured a see-through safety cage to keep fingers safely away from the cutting blade and also included a safety sensor that shut the system down if the lid to the cutting area were opened.
The pioneer of all these projects is Juan Melli Huber who single-handedly set the standard of excellence for these final projects by spending countless hours designing his CD Jukebox the first year that the Programming Applications Course ran.
 The course is challenging at times, but also very rewarding.  The students frequently show up before school and spend many hours after school to work on their projects and programs, learn more about the new equipment, and the like.  Interest and excitement is high, and Real World applications are endless.
 You can help:  We're looking for old, dead printers, discarded disk drives, VCRs and CamCorders-- they're a valuable source of motors, gears, belts, pulleys, tracks, etc.  If you have some old equipment that you don't need anymore and would be interested in donating it for use in the course, kindly contact Jack Bozzuffi at 856-264-5644.