A class of only five students could have a big impact on campus in the coming months. The Mobile Computing class has designed and submitted to Apple an iPhone application that will allow students to vote for the Students’ Association’s proposed constitutional amendments.
The class had hoped to have an app ready that would allow students to vote for SA and class officers, but it won’t be finished in time for this year’s elections. However, several other apps have been completed, including the one to vote for the SA amendments.
Students using the app will receive an e-mail with a personal code to ensure secure voting. Students who do not have an iPhone or and iPod touch can visit a student-developed Web site to make their voices heard.
Brian Burton, assistant professor of informational technology and the class instructor, says he expects to receive word from Apple later this week telling him if the app has been approved.
“It’s amazing how much paperwork goes along with all this,” Burton said.
The Mobile Computing class is relatively new to ACU’s myriad of class selections; it was first available for the 2009 Maymester. Rich Tanner, senior information technology and computing major from West Plains, Mo., has been in the class every semester it has been offered and is now Burton’s teaching assistant.
“I found [application development] to be a lot of fun,” Tanner said. “If ACU is going to be a leader in learning technology, we need to have more student-developed apps.”
Since its inception, the class has completed four projects for release to students and several other projects for non-commercial use within various departments.
Also in the works is a student-developed intramural app that will help students find information about upcoming games and team standings. The app is scheduled to be finished and submitted to Apple for review by the end of the month.
Each student in the class brings something different to the application-creating process, Tanner said.
“It was a team effort, but everyone played to their strengths,” Tanner said.
The class consists of students from the School of Information Technology and Computing but is open to any student who has completed the Programming 1 and Database classes.
