Congratulations to Adam Gask who got through to the Grand Final of the Student Developer Challenge held in London on Monday 8 April. Adam was the only person from Nottingham to get through to the final, and was representing the University of Nottingham for the second year running.
The Student Developer Challenge visited Computer Science last November, and provided a two-day codeathon for students to work on some brand new Samsung devices. Adam found out about the event a few days before, and having only studied Java as part of G51OOP he wasn’t sure how different developing for Android would be. Luckily there were two Samsung developers present who were happy for him to quiz them about how to get started.
Over the two days he managed to get a basic application working, which gained him a joint second place with team Teversal. His continued work on the project evolved into his application Handwriter. Handwriter is an application to help children learn how to write their first letters, using Samsung’s SPen. It has both upper case and lower case letters, along with numbers 0 to 9. The application rewards users with stars, which in turn unlock more games. It has the ability to create multiple profiles and would be ideal for a classroom environment.
Samsung visited again in February this year as part of their Galaxy Tour, and Adam showcased a basic version of his application, which received a positive reception from the students that tried it out. It was also good opportunity to test the application for errors and design features, it provided instant feedback which Adam subsequently used to improve the layout and interface.
In mid-March Adam learnt that his application had been chosen, along with 10 others, to be part of the Grand Final at the BAFTA headquarters in London, which took place on 8 April.
For more information on the Student Developer Challenge see: http://www.studentdeveloperchallenge.com/
Posted on Wednesday 10th April 2013