INHS Insect Database Project

Index

Group Members

Justin Moberg

Anil Kulkarni

Richard Ou

Client

David Arcoleo- Programmer at the Institute for Genomic Biology

Paul Tinerella- Lab Manager for the Illinois Natural History Survey's insect collection

Project Overview

The Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS), a division of the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability, UIUC, seeks to digitize its insect collection. The insect collection is the 7th largest in North America, with more than 7 million curated specimens, representing insect diversity in Illinois, nationally, and worldwide. Currently, work has been done to scan the collections and record some information in accompanying text files, but a workable system and user interface needs to be developed. Prior to the recent implementation of a new scanning technology, digitisation has been limited to hand-entry of individual specimen data. Efforts are focused on a new interface technology that will permit accurate, rapid data capture (via optical/digital imaging) and acquisition, and reduce overall handling of individual specimens. A relational schema is necessary (MySQL, etc) and the solution must be WWW interoperable.

The rest of the proposal can be found here

Our Requirements document is here

A list of features (Work Breakdown Structure) for the project can be found here here

Meetings

Work Logs

Current Status

Ajax is functioning. Working on user authentication and querying the database so the ajax can return suggestions for auto-complete

11-13-09

Working on integrating javascript and ajax functions into our custom templates. Also, working on adding user authentication.

11-08-09

Working on creating a custom interface for the database administration.

10-25

Meeting with client to finalize working environment and to present project idea.

10-18

Prototype database seems to be up and running correctly (with the exception of the 'add slide' function. Now we are trying to figure out how the webpages are generated and how java-script/YUI could be implemented.