Software Engineering Students, Amazing App Creators

09-03-2015

Writer(s): Jesica E. Hollinger

The lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer are almost over, but the students in the Software Engineering Senior Project – SEP 49000 have left a lasting legacy that will remain long after the leaves fall.

Students in Professor H.E. (Buster) Dunsmore’s class spent their summer creating apps with the potential to enhance life for college students and improve options for consumers.

With a copious amount of work – not a mere snap of their fingers – team members Elliott Mantock and Calvin Sauer worked together to create Study Snap, a competitive, engaging, and collaborative flashcard community that makes studying and sharing notes much easier and convenient for students.

Mantock said they created the app to help students study and collaborate with their classmates, so he and Sauer met frequently to work on the project.

“We would meet once a week to discuss sprint plans and determine the best practice to accomplish our goals in a timely manner,” Mantock said. “The biggest struggle was accommodating my work schedule around my internship in Indianapolis, so we could find time to meet,” he added.

Mantock said the team experience with Sauer was an enjoyable experience and the two complemented each other’s strengths.

“It was really great to work with Calvin – I learned so much from him,” Mantock said.” “Learning a new technology and collaborating with someone that has similar workflow habits was a remarkable experience and though we worked hard, it was a lot of fun,” he added.

Sauer said the project assignment was an actual request from the Purdue Department of Pharmacy – submitted as a project option for the software engineering class.

“Now that we have finished our project, we are ready to present it to the Pharmacy department for their review,” Sauer said. “We hope to take it to the research park and see its viability for the marketplace, once we’ve had some professional artist input,” he added.

Sauer believes this software engineering class is important for students to take.

“This class inspires students to think outside the box and come up with new ideas,” Sauer said. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever experience before,” he added. 

Team Zilche comprised of members, Mark Yang, Chen Fang, Kaijun He, Aaron Ho, and Kean Jye Tan created their app to fill a void in the marketplace with regard to finding information.

Currently, data gathering is important in gathering opinions and reaching a consensus on both an individual level and on a global scale.  Many tools exist to gather data from an audience, but most are too broad to encompass all of the specific needs of a user. 

Team Zilche created a polling application that avoids the shortcomings of these existing products, by offering reliable polling services, which includes generating graphs that enhance data quality and visualization.

Yang said the team decided to create this particular device, because they didn’t want to pay to use the apps that are currently available. He said their goal was to create something that was completely free for the user without limitations or restrictions.

“Our app basically allows the user to sign in, and then the user will be able to create a poll, which then other users would be able to vote on,” Yang said.

“The user will also be able to vote on other polls and see the results of any public poll made,” he added.

During the course, Yang said Professor Dunsmore was helpful and encouraging.

“Our team realized what it was like to have a mentor that really cared about the progress of our project and received lots of constructive feedback which was very beneficial throughout this course,” Yang said. “We learned that it is very easy to overestimate how much we can actually write during each two week period of programming,” he added.

Yang said the best part of creating this app was witnessing their vision become a reality.