Even as West Windsor officials were preparing to travel to Monmouth University to receive two awards for the township website, they were also at work discussing ways to improve other aspects of the township’s technology infrastructure.
The Township has created a new Information Technology (IT) Committee. The committee, which will be overseen by Township Network Administrator Chris Wade, had its inaugural meeting on March 21. “The committee’s purpose is to work with the departments and the administration and find out their IT concerns and needs. We will then strategize on how best to meet their goals and get back to them with ideas as soon as possible,” Wade said.
In addition to Wade, the current members are Pat Ward, director of Community Development; Marlena Schmid, business administrator; Joanne Louth, CFO; Gaye Huber, assistant clerk; James Taylor, assistant supervisor of Public Works; Ken Jacobs, manager, Recreation and Parks; Brian Aronson, assistant engineer; Latonya Andrews, Human Resources; Donna Fucetola, manager, Senior and Social Services; Lt. Robert Garofalo, WWPD; and Brian Magnin, emergency services specialist. Also present at the kick-off meeting was Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh. Council Vice President Kristina Samonte will serve as the council liaison.
Wade is also overseeing the redesign of the Township website, which began with the inclusion of the “business opportunities” section. “West Windsor is one of the few towns to even have this type of section, which was considered as part of the website’s ‘content,’ one of the criteria by Monmouth University,” Wade added, noting that it helped the Township win two awards at Monmouth University. The university reviewed the websites of towns and cities across New Jersey and ranked West Windsor as being third overall in the state. In addition, West Windsor was one of a handful of municipalities to win an award in the category of “best municipal website for citizen interaction.”
Wade oversees the entire township website, with input from others. “We are in the process of redesigning it to make it even more user-friendly. We are adding an indexing feature to allow residents more and easier access to search through and find public records, and we are redoing the ‘real estate’ of our webpage, so that all of our links are within scrolling distance, making it easier for residents to find them. We are working with City Connections, a third party developer, maintains our IT hardware. They have the bandwidth capability for handling a website as well-trafficked as ours.”
While Wade is overseeing the redesign of the Township website, the design and inclusion of the business opportunities section was performed by Sophia Liu, currently a senior at High School South. Liu’s father, Chunche Liu, who owns an electronic consulting business, introduced her to Mayor Hsueh last summer, and the Mayor asked her if she would be willing to help redesign the website. Liu responded, “I have no knowledge of computers or websites at all.” The mayor reassured her that she could handle the project, and that Wade would provide her guidance, and so she agreed to do it on a volunteer basis.
“It was a challenge to me,” says Liu. “I am much more involved in science, but I thought I would like to try this. Google became my best friend — on Google, you can find everything you need to know about designing websites. Chris Wade acted as my mentor. He guided me through the project and gave me the framework, and was always there to answer my questions.”
Liu explained that after she met with the mayor and Wade, she met with the Economic Advisory Group. “I learned a lot about what businesses, recreational opportunities, and other resources West Windsor has to offer, and that helped me shape the project. The message I wanted to send was that this is a great community that has a lot to offer, and so I expanded the project from just focusing on what we have to offer to developing a website that would attract families and businesses to locate here.”
“Working with Sophia was great,” Wade said. “The younger generations are the ones with more computer savvy because they have grown up using them. She chose the layout for the business opportunities section. It is a very attractive layout. I would have chosen something more basic, but she understood that to attract people from every generation, it needed to have more. Her input was very valuable.”
Liu’s project took about two weeks. “The mayor provided me with township statistics, such as taxes, and a list of businesses located here, and I received information from the advisory group and the tax department,” she said.
“The project made me appreciate computers more and fostered an interest in web design. My mother, Shuhua Wu, majored in computer science, but because computer technology changes so rapidly, she really didn’t help me with the nuts and bolts of the project. But she encouraged me to do it. Now I think I want to take some computer courses in college because some knowledge of computer programming and web design is needed to succeed in any field.”
Liu has already been accepted at MIT, University of Chicago, and Rutgers, and is waiting to hear from several other universities. “I may want to be a bio-chemist, although pursuing an MD/PhD also appeals to me. But I am keeping my options open.”
Though still a high school senior, Liu has already taken a college-level chemistry course at Princeton University after exhausting South’s curriculum. In addition, Liu is vice president of the school’s Science Olympiad. “We won first place at the state level, and will be going to the national in May. We need corporate sponsors to help us,” she said. “I am the only girl on the team. There are 14 guys and me. My team is very study-based, but I prefer the hands-on projects more. My projects are forensics, experimental design, and material science.”
Liu is also a member of the Waksman Bio-Engineering Club, through which high school students work with Rutgers its equipment to extract DNA and work on cloning experiments.
Liu has also been a member of South’s nationally ranked Model UN team all four years, which, she says, is another “guy-heavy program. It is awesome to be a girl in this program, because it is important to see women in leadership roles, which we get to do in the Model UN program.
“I also have played violin in the orchestra every year except this year, and want to pursue it recreationally in college. In addition, I am relaxing and enjoying my senior year. I like taking walks with my friends, running, and watching the show ‘Community.’ And I like reading — especially about zombies. Zombies are cool,” she said.
Various community organizations may be wishing that they had enlisted the help of Liu for one of their projects. While she is about to head off for college, it may not be too late to enlist her help. “I really enjoyed getting involved with the township website project,” she said. “I hope to do another community project again this summer.”
Editor’s note: WW-P News reporter Sue Roy also serves on the West Windsor Economic Advisory Group.
