Plymouth High School Computer Science students and Computer Science/Math Teacher Lindsay Moore traveled to the IUPUI Mobile App Challenge in Indianapolis to represent PHS this past Saturday. The Mobile App Challenge is a one-day competition for Indiana high school students, who compete in teams for prizes by designing and building a mobile app based on assigned specifications under a tight deadline. The event is open to students with any level of expertise. Students design and develop mobile applications to demonstrate their creativity, team building ability, and app development skills in a high-energy, fun, and motivating event hosted by the School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI and the Department of Human-Centered Computing.
Moore said, “When our six student and I arrived, we discovered that we would be competing against 11 other high school teams. Each team is made up of two or three students. Each year, the challenge begins with a design brief, during which the IUPUI faculty announces what task the app should accomplish. This year, the students were designing an app that would address a concern with voting.”
Students were given six and a half hours to plan and design their user interface and program their app before presenting it a panel of judges and their competitors. The students completed their design without outside assistance. The apps were judged on completeness, user interface, visual design, and technical fluency.
“After the judges deliberated, we were very pleased to discover that one of our teams placed,” said Moore.
Senior Kobe Johnson, senior Mitch Rose, and senior Bridget Schafer won first place for their work on their app, PolitiKnow. Their app was designed to help voters understand the issues and the candidates’ views prior to arriving at the polls. They programmed their app using xCode and designed custom graphics for the user interface. Each student received a $150 gift card and a $2,000 scholarship to the IUPUI School of Informatics.
Junior Anthony Harris, junior Jack Hedger, and junior Elijah Lyon designed, The Voter’s Guide, an app that focused on helping voters understand how different political parties view each issue. While they did not place in this year’s competition, they were happy to compete and challenge themselves.
Moore said, “The team of juniors designed a fantastic app they should be proud of. The tight deadline associated with this challenge makes it very difficult for students with less experience to complete all of the features they plan. Next year, they will have a much better understanding of what they can design and code within the timeframe.”
Plymouth High School would like to congratulate all six students for their dedication and the professionalism they demonstrated Saturday at the IUPUI Mobile App Challenge in Indianapolis. #PCSCweCARE
Provided by PHS
