My idea for the final project is inspired by my birthplace, Hong Kong. I love this place and wanted to share the different aspects of this diverse city. However, I did not want to simply introduce the different tourist spots. Moreover, I wanted my project to have more relevance to the people residing here in LA. Therefore, I have come up with the topic regarding the recent pandemics that have swept Hong Kong with despair. I want the project to not only be a virtual tour of some place in the world, but as the project description suggests, to also be a more in depth investigation to a subject that is more current and that has historical significance.

Recently, the avian influenza virus, H5N1, has become alarming, as it is found to be able to spread from birds to humans and then to other humans.   Hong Kong was one of the first places to be affected by this virus and now, the problem is continuing about two years after the out burst of SARS, which was another pandemic that swept Hong Kong in 2003.

I plan to use my final project as a guide through the life of a H5N1 virus from creation to death. During the tour, the viewer will go through three phases: 1) The mutation of the virus to H5N1; 2) the spread of the virus among birds and 3) the spread of the virus among humans. At each phase, details such as the different parts of the virus and the different symptoms that both birds and humans suffer are shown.

The project will be made through a hybrid of Flash, HTML, CSS and Java Scripts.

Some of the background information for research is:

Some technical skills required for the project are:

The objective for using this theme in the project is to be informative about the H5N1 virus and to trigger awareness towards its severity. In addition, I would also like to dedicate this in memory to those who have died during the recent pandemics in Hong Kong.

link to sitemap