Maggie Kaisermann
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This past weekend 36 Cal Poly students competed in the Cal Poly SLO iOS App Challenge. There were 12 teams of three working around the clock to produce an app eligible to be sold in Apple’s App Store.
The teams presented their app to a judging panel made up of Cal Poly faculty and industry experts Monday night. Judges were looking for originality of the idea with regard to the theme, how technically challenging the implementation is, the execution of the final demo and how well the team represented their app.
The winning team produced “DropBeats.” The team was made up of biomedical engineering senior Michael Dewitt, computer science senior Spencer Lewson and computer engineering senior George Gargov. For first place, they each won a MacBook Air.
“We put a lot of hard work into many consecutive hours this weekend,” Dewitt said. “The presentation was fun, and the competition was well worth it.”
According to Gargov, most teams kept to themselves without collaboration from other groups.
“Some teams wouldn’t share their ideas till two hours before the presentation,” he said. “Sometimes it was stressful, but I would say DropBeats ended on a high note.”
Second place went to a teaching assistant app for elementary educators called “Bright House.” Each team member won an iPad mini.
The crowd’s choice award went to “Fountain Fusion,” which is an app for helping users decide which common fountain drinks mixed together make a good combination. They each received an iPad mini as well.
Apple software manager and university relations Myke Olsen said each team worked hard and should continue to finalize their apps and submit them to the Apple App Store.
Every participant received an iTunes gift card for their hard work and participation. Beside the prizes, students had the opportunity to work closely with Apple engineers to improve their apps.
You can check out all submissions here.
Correction: A previous version of this article included a quote from Lewson that was misattributed.