If you need further confirmation of just how influential the iPhone has become, look no further than Tennessee’s Freed-Hardeman University, where six computer science majors rallied together to create a free iOS app aimed at enhancing the experience of visiting the campus, right in the palm of your hand.
Freed-Hardeman University has announced the availability of their first student-created iPhone app, FHUMobile. Announced by the college via Twitter when it was released on July 27, students of the higher education campus as well as prospective scholars looking to attend have both found the app a treat.
“It’s handy,” gushed sophomore Anna Catherine Steele, “especially the directory.” The directory provides a photograph, office location, and email and phone information. “One tap takes you to FaceBook, Twitter, and sports news.”
FHUMobile is the brainchild of six university computer science majors headed up by Michael Jenkins, a May, 2011 graduate of the school, along with students Caleb Hutson, Cameron Czerwonka, Trevor Robertson, James Allen, and Jeff Boyd. All six were enrolled in Dr. Kenan Casey’s Advanced Topics in Computer Science course, and the university’s webmaster, Michael Plyler, acted as project manager.
According to Jenkins, the goal was to create an app that would provide useful information to both prospective and current students as well as faculty and staff. Prospects are able to view information about the university and contact FHU directly from the app, while current students have access to social media as well as a calendar of events, faculty and building directors and an enhanced campus map.
Jenkins called coding the iPhone app “a huge learning curve.” Written in Objective-C, it called for the six students to master a language they had never used before.
“Something we all learned was that it is actually very difficult to code some of the things that are so easy to use on the iPhone,” Jenkins explains. “I could not imagine a better way to spend our time in our last computer science class than to actually be making something that will be used by many people at the university.”
FHUMobile is available on the App Store for all to explore; the 34.1MB download is free and compatible with any device running iOS 4.0 or later.
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