Technology student writes program, wins awards

Intermountain Catholic

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Michael Jonaitis wrote a computer program that would connect to any type of chat room to detect any type of language. He won Second Overall in Computer Science at the Annual Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair and received a special award from XMission.IC photo by Christine Young

DRAPER — Michael Jonaitis graduated with the Juan Diego Catholic High School Class of 2008. Jonaitis won Second Overall in Computer Science at the Annual Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair at the University of Utah. He received a special award from XMission for best use of the Internet, and he received a special award from the United States Army for the best innovative idea.

Jonaitis’ innovative idea was a program he wrote that would detect a certain type of word in any type of chat room.

"I wrote a program that would connect to a certain kind of chat room," said Jonaitis. "It has a bot basically that joins as a user, and acts as a user. It is like anybody else in a chat room. You can name it whatever you want. It will sit in the chat room and it will listen, and if people say/type certain words, for example sexually explicit words, it will flag you by e-mail. So if you are a client or parent worried about a child in a chat room, you can join that particular chat room."

Jonaitis said recently a woman was raped as the result of an internet predator. He was called to see what his program could do. Jonaitis’ program is being used to detect certain words to detect this type of predator.

"My program is listed as an open source, which means everybody can download it and use it," said Jonaitis. "I know it has been used on some sites. It has also been changed. Because it is open source, that means I allow other people to see my codes and to change them as they wish. So you can use this program for advertising or whatever you want. You can use it to see how often your name is said in any particular chat room for advertising. You can set the bot so that your name is the only thing it will pick up and e-mail it back to you.

"You could have whatever you want in any database such as sexually explicit words, or any type of words just to see what people say in a chat room," said Jonaitis.

Jonaitis will attend Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., this fall and will major in computer science. He chose Gonzaga because his computer teacher, Dr. James Duane, director of technology at Juan Diego, had sons who went to Gonzaga University.

"Gonzaga is a highly ranked computer science school. I also wanted to go to school out of state," said Jonaitis. "Gonzaga is a strong Catholic college. I am also happy that it is a private college because that means people from all over will be going there. At least 60 percent will be from out of state. There will not be as many high school groups going there, and there will be more opportunities to meet people.

"Dr. James was also my boss," said Jonaitis. "I did tech work around the school like fixing computers, moving printers, and a little bit of everything.

"I became interested in computer science by playing games on the computer and then everything kind of developed after that," said Jonaitis. "Once you start getting into computers, problems occur and you have to learn how to fix them. Then you start to get more and more interested, and learn more and more about computers. Then you start fixing other people’s computers. Once you start fixing other people’s computers, that makes you teach yourself more and you start looking things up and learning more. Then you start to take classes and things evolve from there. I have taken all the computer classes Juan Diego has to offer."

Jonaitis would like to graduate with a Master’s degree in computer science and would like to intern somewhere in California.

"I would love to get a software engineering job in the entertainment industry or some type of graphics job," said Jonaitis. "I would like to get into special effects in movies, 3-D modeling, or games because everything uses graphics."

There were 19 students from Juan Diego Catholic High School sent in late April to compete in the statewide 2008 Annual LearnKey Computer Challenge held at Utah Valley University in Orem.

Participants competed in testing on: Linux, A+ Certification, Cisco CCNA, Network+, Novel, and IC3 (Information Technology (IT) Certification preparation and testing). Juan Diego competed in four of the eight competitions, and took five out of the total 24 possible first, second, and third place awards.

There were a total of 230 Utah high school students competing in eight categories. The top three in each category were given awards, prizes, and certificates of accomplishment from Carl Lyman, director of the State of Utah for Technical Skills.

The five Juan Diego winners were: first place in Linux Systems, John Soklaski, a junior; third place in Linux Systems, Daniel Davis, a senior. First place in Cisco Networking, Alex Hicks, a senior; third place in Cisco Networking, Andrew Jolley, a senior; and second place in Windows XP, Evan LeForestier, a sophomore.

"Computer challenges like LearnKey are a chance for students to get state recognition for achievements in areas other than sports or the arts," said Duane. "It is a motivational experience to successfully compete.

"The students who participate in the state challenge typically take more technology classes and pursue college paths toward careers in technology fields," said Duane. "Giving students access to the latest in computer hardware, and having a variety of courses that remain progressive keep the interest up. Because we are a private school, we are able to keep up the rapid changes in this field and stay fresh.

"We can quickly switch from teaching a program language that is becoming antiquated to robotics," said Duane. "The most popular course is web design, which has occasionally crossed curriculum boundaries into the art department.

"Having more than 450 computers available on campus levels the playing field between those who grew up with a computer in the kitchen, and those who could barely afford shoes," said Duane. "We decided when we opened this school in 1999 that regardless of their experience coming in to Juan Diego, we were going to send all of the students off to college well versed in most systems. Now, we’re developing an academy that bridges tech advancements with science, math and engineering to prepare the next wave of Utah’s tech innovators."