[Csped] These students did it on their own!

[Charles White]

Why can’t we do something like this right now!?


Students at Georgia Tech Create Unofficial Campus iPhone Application

A homemade iPhone application at the Georgia Institute of Technology  
has gained a following — and won its student creators some fans.

The application, called GT Login, is essentially a cellphone-friendly  
interface to several existing Web-based campus services. With a few  
taps, users can read their campus e-mail, see which laundry machines  
are available, or check when the next shuttle bus will arrive using  
their iPhone or iPod Touch. The application is free, but it requires  
a Georgia Tech account to access the services.

Adrian Smith, a senior at the university majoring in computer  
engineering, made the application for fun — because he wanted to  
learn how to program applications for the iPhone. He has now teamed  
up with some fellow students to form a company to build other iPhone  
applications, and he says he spends between two and 10 hours each  
week tweaking the functionality and adding features to GT Login. More  
than 1,000 people each week use the application, according to Mr. Smith.

One fan of the service is Brian Mathews, who works in the library at  
the university (his title is “user-experience librarian”). He e- 
mailed Mr. Smith and suggested that they add a feature that would let  
students see which computers in the library were available and which  
were occupied. The library has such a service on its Web site, so the  
programmers simply needed to integrate it into their iPhone  
application — which they quickly did.

“I really like that it came from students rather than us doing it,”  
said Mr. Mathews. “It has more of an underground kind of vibe to it.”  
—Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Wednesday February 11, 2009 | Permalink |

Charles B. White, Ph.D.
V.P. Information Resources and Administrative Affairs
Professor, Psychology
Trinity University
San Antonio, Texas 78212

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