Senior project takes WWU Computer Science students all the way to Alaska

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Senior project takes WWU Computer Science students all the way to Alaska

May 13, 2025

by Lili Luna Cruz

WWU Communications intern

WWU computer science students Mila Brooks, Wyatt Ayers and Steven Grubb have collaborated with the Sitka Sound Science Center to develop an interactive educational salmon life-cycle game as their senior project.

Over the course of a year the students took the senior project from a concept to a live demo they presented in Sitka to a final product ready to be played by all those who visit the science center.

The initial idea for the game was proposed by Western '22 alumna Ella Neumann, who works as the data manager for the Sitka Sound Science Center.

"There was a touch screen kiosk in the science center that wasn't being used, and we thought it would be sweet to have Western computer science students build a computer game," Neumann said. "The product that the students came up with blew our expectations out of the water. We have been so impressed by their work."

The game consists of five levels that follow the different stages of a salmon's life-cycle. Each level depicts different natural, and human caused hazards that salmon face throughout that stage of life.

Players start the game as an alevin and follow along as the salmon grows into a fry, smolt, adult and eventually goes back upstream to spawn. Players navigate the same obstacles wild salmon face, including predators such as bears, sharks and seals or humans disrupting stream ecosystems and fishing. While moving through these challenges, players are prompted with information on the different stages of the life cycle, hazards and predators.

"The point of the game is you don't finish," Grubb said. "You win the game by dying a couple of times as a salmon and learning about the impact that particular death has on the environment."

When the students began the project, they hadn't known visiting the science center was on the horizon, but at the beginning of fall quarter it all fell into place. The students developed and presented a demo of the game to the science center staff, requesting feedback and opening up a conversation about how to make the game more accurate.

"We wanted to get feedback from the staff and what they thought of the direction we were going," Grubb said. "We also spent time getting to know the environment the game was going to get played in. The science center, culture and all the people that would be working with it."

During the four day trip the students and CS instructors Piper Wolters and Blake Pedrini got to meet with a local commercial fisherman to discuss the history of commercial fishing in the area and the role the science center's hatchery plays in the local economy. They also toured the science center hatchery where they got to help spawn Coho salmon, went snorkeling in very thick wetsuits and visited Sitka's Totem square and Sitka National Historic Park to learn about Tlingit and Haida culture.

Each of these stops helped inform the students on how to improve their game and tailor it to the local environment and culture.

"They had a ton of really valuable feedback as to what was important to represent in the game and what maybe wasn't so important," Grubb said. "There were some things that we just sort of got wrong because we didn't know what we were talking about, and they helped us work through that."

In the months after the trip the students worked hard to polish and update the game with everything they learned. Mila Brooks created the art for the game, incorporating things she had seen while on the trip. New features were added from what they saw while snorkeling and others removed based on the community's feedback. At its core, the game is meant to be educational and visiting Sitka and the science center allowed the students to make it what it is now.

"We are trying over time to make the science center a place where we can tell the story of the Sitka Sound, and to tell that story in a way people understand," Neumann said.

The game the students developed helps tell a part of that Sitka Sounds story, Neumann said, and it does so in a fun and digestible way for all the different populations that pass through the science center.

"I was very proud of the students. Everyone at the center was so impressed by the students' presentation and their communication skills, and how they interacted with the community and the respect they had for the people and the place," Neumann said. "That is all I could have asked for as a mentor and it was really humbling, and I felt really grateful I got to work with these students because they were so inspiring, and such good stewards."

Brooks, Ayers and Grubb have all since graduated from Western and moved on to other projects, but the impact this game will have on the Sitka community will surely be long-lasting.

"It was extremely apparent while we were in Sitka, talking to various members of the community about this project, that the work the students were doing was going to have a direct impact," Wolters said. "It meant a lot to the people who care so deeply about salmon

and their lifecycle. Some senior projects feel a bit disconnected and almost like 'another homework assignment' but this one felt meaningful and real." Learn about the salmon life cycle and play the completed game here!

Ongoing Collaboration

The salmon life cycle game isn't the only project the Sitka Sound Science Center has collaborated with Western students on. Western '22 alumna Zofia Danielson, a Sitka native and research coordinator for the Sitka Science Center, works closely with the centers education department to work with local schools in Sitka and university students like those here at Western.

This summer, Western CS students will be working on a marine-debris database for the science center with the help of Danielson.

"A database on our science center website hosts all of the marine debris data across the state but it hadn't been updated since 2018," Danielson said. "We're really excited to think about ways to make that data both more accessible to the public and easy to access and update."

Other projects include using machine learning to analyze trail images of berries throughout the stages of their growth. This could help local communities monitor the health of the berries and the changes they might be experiencing due to increased temperatures, longer growing seasons and other changes in climate.

"Up to this point we have been clicking through individual images to create a rough timeline of when the different life stages of the berries are. We are hoping that with the machine learning and code associated with that, the process can go faster," Danielson said. "We might also be able to send that code and those programs to other communities interested in monitoring their berries. Particularly tribal governments that are interested in exploring what that might look like."

Danielson will be mentoring Western computer science students for the next two quarters on these projects, and she said the Sitka community is really excited about their potential outcomes.

"It has been really exciting working with computer science students at Western and thinking about ways to bridge disciplines," Danielson said. "It is amazing to come back and work here in Sitka and do this work that is so meaningful to the community."