Dal computer scientists wake up Woody the Talking Christmas Tree
Dal Computer Science faculty members Joe Malloch (left) and Hanieh Shakeri, together with Woody “imagineer” Madison Byrnes and, of course, Woody the Talking Christmas Tree. (Cody Turner photos)
From Springboard Content Lab and Dal News
A team of computer scientists from Springboard member Dalhousie University lent a hand and some coding skills to help a talking Christmas tree “wake up” in time for the busy Christmas season.
It all started in October when Andrew Rau-Chaplin, dean of Dalhousie’s Faculty of Computer Science, sent an email to faculty members with the subject line, “C++ programming needed urgently to help save Christmas.” The crisis involved the iconic Woody the Talking Christmas Tree in Dartmouth’s Mic Mac Mall.
Would Woody wake-up?
Mic Mac Mall owner Joe Ramia asked Dalhousie for assistance to bring Woody out of hibernation in time his seasonal wake-up on November 15.
The tree was malfunctioning and in need of some attention to bring it back to life, so the Dalhousie computer elves, Drs. Hanieh Shakeri and Joe Malloch, came to the rescue.
“We both work in human-computer interaction. Our research space looks at how humans interact with different kinds of computer systems. There’s a lot about Woody’s wake-up routine that we would typically encounter on a day-to-day basis in our own research, but it was a fun, different way of using it.”
Dr. Hanieh Shakeri, Dalhousie Computer Science
Awakening a Christmas icon
Drs. Malloch and Shakeri made multiple visits to the mall to do the programming necessary to get Woody ready for the big wake-up day. On Saturday, November 15, Woody came to life went, if anything, talking and interacting better than ever before.
Mall owner Raima was grateful for the care Woody received from the Dal faculty and is now engaging the team on ways to make Woody better for the next holiday season.
“We were incredibly impressed by the support Dalhousie was able to provide in helping us get Woody ready for Christmas. After we had exhausted our options to solve the problem, we reached out to Dal and couldn’t have been more pleased by how quickly they were able to react. Our thanks to the team from Computer Science for their help in bringing the spirit of the season to life this year.”
Mic Mac Mall owner Joe Ramia, Rank Inc.
Those sentiments are echoed by Ben Goldberg, managing director of DalPartners and Springboard Industry Engagement Professional, who connected Ramia to the Faculty of Computer Science.
“We’re so appreciative of them doing this. There are so many different ways faculty members help in the community, and this is a particularly fun one for everyone. I’m very grateful to both of them for stepping up at such a busy time and making this happen.”
Ben Goldberg, Managing Director of DalPartners and Springboard IEP