Two Carmel High School students won first prize in the App Challenge hosted by the School of Informatics and Computing (SoIC) Saturday, October 25, 2014 at the Informatics and Communications Technology Complex on IUPUI’s campus.
The competition was open to Indiana high school students. After a general session where students were briefly introduced to the School of Informatics and Computing, teams were challenged to create, develop and program from scratch an app version of the classic game of memory (concentration) in only 8 hours, with bonus for additional elements like scalable grid elements, levels of difficulty, animation, sound or additional media. The app had to be fully designed, programmed and finally browsable on an Android mobile device.
The Winans Minions was the winning team made up of Atif Niyaz and Calvin Henry, mentored by Margaret Winans of Carmel High School. Second prize went to Think Tank, David Baker and Alexander Whaley, mentored by Mike Spock from Columbus North High School, and third prize went to Homeschool Mobile Design Team, Theodore Stumpf, Zachary Caldwell, and Meghan Stumpf, mentored by Bryan Stumpf from Lebanon, Indiana.
“It is so exciting to see the interest and passion that the students have in informatics and how they are getting into app design and development at an early age. We were very impressed with the level of knowledge and perseverance that all the teams had throughout the day. At 7.30 in the morning, even before the challenge started, students already had their computers and phones fired up and ready to code. This was an eight hour day that provided a setting similar to what a real world project might consist of, and the students did remarkably well managing their time and working with the parameters they were given,” said Davide Bolchini, Department Chair Human-Centered Computing.
Students engaged in design and sketching the interactive and user experience of their app, then moved quickly to fully coding the app and all its features. SoiC faculty Travis Faas and student volunteers answered questions, provided advice, tested the apps during development, and challenged the participants to do more.
Prizes went to the top three teams with the first place prize consisting of $500 cash for the team and $1,000 scholarships and research dollars to be used for an undergraduate degree at the SoIC at IUPUI, for each team member. School of Informatics and Computing alumni Taha Khan, The Basement Design and Motion and David Poindexter, NextGear Capital were judges. “This was an eye-opening experience, not just for the students but for us as judges and industry professionals. This competition showed us how much the interest in learning about technology has grown over the past few years, which will produce some great job candidates down the road,” said Poindexter.
This is the first year for the challenge with plans to make it an annual event.
View photos from the App Challenge
View the School of Informatics and Computing event calendar.
Follow on Facebook and Twitter
Media Contact
Joanne Lovrinic
jebehele@iu.edu
317-278-9208