SHU Students Developing Database for Sikorsky Archives

Students use skills and knowledge learned in classroom to find solution for real-world problem

Three Sacred Heart University computer science students are spending their summer vacation researching and developing a digital database for the Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives.

Rising juniors Joaquin Camaran, Mahmud Kandawala and Thiago Reis are working 40 hours per week as software engineer interns to establish a comprehensive, online database system that can support the nonprofit organization’s tremendous amount of information.

Igor Sikorsky was an aviation pioneer. His flying boats and amphibious airplanes opened global air routes and his helicopters gave the world vertical lift. The archives, now housed in SHU’s West Campus, are managed by former Sikorsky Aircraft employees and other volunteers. Founded in 1995, it preserves and makes available documents, photographs, design drawings and artifacts associated with Sikorsky’s inventions and ideas. The archives is an independent, nonprofit organization dependent upon donations and memberships.

The three students working to digitize the archives library are part of the National Science Foundation Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program at SHU. They are getting real-world experience helping a local nonprofit while also meeting their scholarship requirements.

The Archives

From PDFs of helicopter blueprints to copies of flight manuals, the Sikorsky information to be stored and made searchable is vast. The students spend most of their time working remotely, but once a week they meet with the archives’ volunteers at their SHU offices.

“We’re trying to preserve what we have,” said John Bulakowski, archives vice president. He cautioned that the organization has limited financial and manpower resources. “It’s not helpful if only our archivists have Sikorsky-related information stored in their heads. It needs to be accessible to others. Our current processes need to be upgraded and made compatible with today’s technology. The goal of this project is a cost-effective technical approach to how we will catalog and access our treasure trove of correspondence, photos, videos, memorabilia, books and periodicals. We will be initiating fundraising events soon. This will be critical to our success.”

The Students

When SHU engineering professor and director Tolga Kaya learned of the archives’ predicament, he approached the student he thought could create a database for the material. Reis was all-in. “I thought it could be fun,” he said. “Then I told Joaquin about it, and then he told Mahmud. Without all of us working together, we wouldn’t have been able to take on this project.”

The three agreed that the opportunity to work on an assignment related to their field was huge. “This is a taste of what we might see in our future careers,” Reis said.

The group started working on the Sikorsky Archives project toward the end of the spring semester when they were learning about databases, so the skills they were acquiring in class were being applied directly to their work. “Everything we learned as computer science students has come up in some way,” Camaran said. “This project has really been a test of everything we’ve learned.

In late May, the students investigated database options and gathered in the Sikorsky Archives conference room to discuss them. Four archives’ volunteers joined them around a table to hash out ideas and talk about next steps.

“We are challenging ourselves,” Camaran said. “There are a lot of files—thousands and thousands. And we’re tasked with making an efficient way to put them in a database.”

The work is multifaceted. “Collaborating on complex data migration tasks and optimizing database performance has deepened our understanding of database architecture and data-handling techniques,” said Kandawala. “This experience has not only enhanced my technical skills, but also improved my problem-solving abilities, coding practices and teamwork—essential skills for a successful software engineer.”

Bulakowski said working with the students has been wonderful. “They are quick learners, and they’re motivated. They respond well to many challenges.”

The three undergraduates said the relationships they’ve formed and knowledge they’re gaining about an extraordinary engineer have been great. “We’re pioneers of this project,” said Kandawala.

The students hope to have made significant progress by summer’s end.

“I am proud of our students for the way they carry themselves in this challenging project and communicate their progress with both technical and non-technical audiences,” Kaya said. “Having the Sikorsky Archives on our campus has provided great exposure for our computer science and engineering students."