June 30, 2003

"Diet Download” Wins International Recognition, Third Place Prize

(left to right) NC State Computer Science Students Nathan Green, Jeremy Maness, J. R. Wilson, and Buck Webb took third place in international competition with their senior design project, “Diet Download.” They were the only US team to make it to the finals. With them are team mentors Margaret Heil and Dr. Robert Fornaro. (Photo: Stacy Saul, IEEE Computer Society.)

NC State Computer Science Students Nathan Green, Jeremy Maness, J. R. Wilson, and Buck Webb took third place in international competition with their senior design project, “Diet Download.” They were the only US team to make it to the finals. With them are team mentors Margaret Heil and Dr. Robert Fornaro. (Photo: Stacy Saul, IEEE Computer Society.) In July 2003 an NC State computer science student team won third place in the world finals of the fourth annual Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society International Design Competition. They were the only U.S. team to place in the top 10 finalists. Team members were Nathan D. Green (BS CSC/MA ’03), Jeremy Maness (BS CSC ’03), Buck Webb and J. R. Wilson, both seniors in computer science. Under the guidance of Dr. Robert J. Fornaro, director of the Senior Design Center in the Department of Computer Science, and Margaret Heil, assistant director of the Center, the team developed an invention called “Diet Download,” which can help consumers with their weight loss programs. The device is a personal digital assistant with a bar-code scanner that can create a “virtual pantry” to help users easily record what they eat. Shoppers can look up specific dietary information about a product by scanning its bar code, store recent personal weight history and track weight loss.

The cash award for third prize is $12,000, with $6,000 for the team members and $6,000 for NC State to establish an IEEE Computer Society financial aid fund for computer science and engineering students.

The story about Diet Download has captured the imagination of the media, with coverage from the Associated Press reaching from New York, to Florida, to the West Coast and to Hawaii.

— rudd —

/ Awards Index / Awards Archives Index /