A Youthful Take on App Development

The Imagine App Challenge at Imagine Park brought together all the key ingredients for app-development breakthrough: Five teams of students from colleges around the country. Forty-eight hours of development time. Access to Professional-Grade APIs (from Rovi and Civolution). And of course, plenty of Red Bull® and local take-out food.

The result: Five highly creative digital media applications that showcased the potential of broadband platforms and the inventive, collaborative possibilities they offer. The novel "hackathon" also gave Cable Show 2012 participants a chance to witness a live development environment in action – and get a sense of how smart young people, empowered with toolsets of the broadband age, can change the world.

Participants came from five universities: MIT, Pace University, Rutgers, Stanford and Wellesley College. When their forty-eight hours were up, the students took the stage for live presentations before the Imagine Park audience and a panel of industry judges who evaluated the creativity and utility of the apps.

Three of the entrants received cash awards for their work. But in an important way, everybody who participated won. The chance to create a working app from the ground up while addressing an aspect of the digital lifestyle offered a rich, once-in-a-lifetime experience for participants and the Imagine Park audience that followed along.

Profiles of the five student teams and their Imagine App Challenge creations appear below. We congratulate each team…and look forward to seeing where their imagination takes them next.

Meet The Teams

Team MIT

THE APP:
ROAR - A super scale, social TV chat system that makes it easy for users to find friends watching live events, invite friends to come watch with you and keep in touch with the mood of the crowd -- all at the same time.

THE TEAM:
This dynamic duo of a PhD student and a computer science freshman at MIT are a force to be reckoned with. They are well versed in designing synchronous social experiences and building the technical infrastructure to make it all work. The team Captain has been writing and speaking about this space for both academic and corporate audiences for the past six years.

MEMBERS:
Drew Harry - Captain
Mark Fayngersh

MORE INFO: Visit Drew Harry's website and Mark Fayngersh's website.

Team Pace

THE APP:
"EnergyFriends" A mobile app on smart energy counting carbon footprint, electric and water usage, offering nearby carpool clubs as well as energy saving tips all in one app.

THE TEAM:
With two computer science majors and one software development/engineering graduate student from Pace University, no detail is being overlooked. This team has large aspirations to help users actively realize how they can help save the environment and "live a greener lifestyle".

MEMBERS:
Nikhil Fernandes- Captain
Digdarshan Dhonju
Mani Shergill

Team Rutgers

THE APP:
RuMAD plans to take all the features and fun that comes with watching TV and combine them with social media. Their social TV app will allow users to track, compare and search TV watching habits on mobile devices interacting with a cable box.

THE TEAM:
What can three computer science majors and a biomedical engineering major from Rutgers University accomplish in the mobile industry? The answer is: just about anything! These founding members of the on-campus, app development club, RuMAD (Rutgers Mobile Application Development). They aren't shy about their mantra: "We are here to make a difference, to bring a change, not only to the Rutgers community but throughout the world".

MEMBERS:
David Zafrani- Captain
Kyle Byrne
Chris Dilks
Wil Langford

MORE INFO: Visit www.rumad.us.

Team Stanford - Winners of the Grand Prize

THE APP:
A system that enables users to dynamically express their preference for traffic prioritization into their home network. The goal of this app allows users to configure their network on a simple and intuitive way and to choose the content providers they prefer, no matter what their location or access provider.

THE TEAM:
These two PhD candidates from Stanford University have quite an impressive background in multimedia networking, wireless networking, network traffic measurement, network architecture and platforms for network innovation and experimentation.

MEMBERS:
Yiannis Yiakoumis
Te-Yuan Huang

Team Wellesley

THE APP:
"WorkOut Buddy" This mobile app will provide users with a new way of communicating with friends and promoting a healthy lifestyle with fitness activities. WorkOut Buddy will give users the opportunity to create a continuous workout regime that stems from the competitiveness and social aspects generated by this new mobile application.

THE TEAM:
The only all girls team at the Imagine App Challenge have a clear path - to inspire more women to take part in the technology industry. Some of Wellesley's finest varsity athletes, computer science majors and health enthusiasts have converged for a single cause -- to bring WorkOut Buddy to life! Three Executive Board members of Wellesley's Taiwanese Cultural Organization and a computer science major have converged to showcase Wellesley women in technology and contribute their experiences and new ideas to the development of software on mobile, web and related platforms.

MEMBERS:
Kristian Tran- Captain
Emily Lin
Veronica Lin
Stephanie Lee

FOLLOW THE CHALLENGE: