The students behind Mocha are introducing a new brew to accommodate the University's switch to Banner. The founders of Mocha, the student-run alternative to the University's online course catalog, have been pouring hours of work into their project to help students find courses as the first online pre-registration period approaches. They are also preparing to hand down the program to a new team of students.
Mocha was founded in 2006 by five computer science concentrators looking for an easier way to search for courses. Dave Pacheco '07, Daniel Leventhal '07, Adam Cath '07, Dave Hirshberg '08 and Bill Pijewski '07 cultivated the idea of Mocha as a final project in a CS class. After they released Mocha, the popularity of the program skyrocketed. For many students, Mocha is now an indispensable resource during shopping period.
The Mocha team currently consists of four original members - Pacheco, Leventhal, Cath and Hirshberg - and three new students, Colin Gordon '08, Tim O'Donnell '09 and Andres Douglas '09, who started working on Mocha this semester.
The newest additions are now becoming familiar with how Mocha operates. "We're almost trying to go slowly so we can bring the new guys up to speed," Leventhal said.
Development of the updated version of Mocha was also slowed this semester because of the launch of Banner, the new computer database that has replaced Brown Online Course Announcement. Since Mocha harvests course information from the University's database, Mocha must be updated any time the Banner course catalog changes.
Updating Mocha can be incredibly time-consuming, Pacheco said, but the work often occurs in bursts. After Banner's course database went live, Leventhal put in about seven or eight hours a day for four or five days.
"I took a deep breath before saying yes because I had some idea of how much time it would take," Gordon said of his decision to join the Mocha team.
The three new members said they knew it would be a major responsibility, but they ultimately joined to be a part of what they thought was a valuable project.
"It helps people around you and has a direct impact on everyone you know. You can see it being used all around you," Douglas said.
With the widespread criticism of Banner's unfriendly user interface - including a public condemnation from the Undergraduate Council of Students - students are continuing to rely on Mocha to search for courses.
"Banner is so hard to navigate that I'll probably be using Mocha even more," said Bricia Trejo '09.
The Mocha creators did not particularly wish for that outcome - their main goal, they said, is to have an effective way to search for courses, whether provided by their program or by the University.
"We hoped that when Banner came out, we wouldn't have to exist anymore," Leventhal said.
The group is aiming to keep up with changes to the Banner system and maintain the accuracy of the course catalog.
"We have to spend a lot of time at Mocha fixing problems with the way it reacts with Banner," Pacheco said.
For example, when the XLIST feature for cross-listed classes was added to Banner this week, it "broke Mocha," according to Pacheco. He wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that the Mocha team used a "quick fix" to update their program, but now they have to work to add the XLIST feature to Mocha.
Members of the Mocha team have met with Computing and Information Services administrators and, in the past, the Office of the Registrar to try to find a way to make course updates more accessible to Mocha. But administrators have been unwilling to release course data other than through the University Web site, the Mocha organizers said.
"I think the general consensus is that Mocha is useful to use in conjunction with Banner as an alternative to the scheduling office of Banner," said Lisa Mather, associate registrar for registration services.
"They seem to be acknowledging and liking Mocha now, but we're hoping to have a tighter relationship in the future," Cath said.
As the Mocha team looks to the future, its three graduating members still intend to contribute to Mocha. Pacheco, Leventhal and Cath will have full-time jobs next year, but the three plan to spend time on the project, even if they're not at Brown. Their commitment to the project will decrease, but they believe the program will continue be a beneficial tool to new students because of their choices in their successors.
"We trust the new guys. We know Mocha's in good hands," Pacheco said.
