School of Information Technology students competed in the 13th annual Mobile Application Development (MAD) Contest, sponsored by State Farm. The MAD Contest invites students to develop a working application from their own concept, for the mobile device of their choice. Their application should address some need of the user in an innovative way by leveraging mobile device capabilities. Students can compete as individuals or two-person teams. MAD Contest 2024 kicked off in November 2023 with 19 entries who began developing their mobile app concept.
The longstanding MAD Contest, sponsored by State Farm, provides great benefit to students. Derek Krut, principal technology engineer at State Farm, and primary sponsor representative for the MAD Contest says, “The contest has been successful for many reasons. The commitment and determination of students to learn new technology and build a mobile app (some systems integration) in addition to their schoolwork, showcase many qualities that employers value and will make them successful in their career.”
The first phase of the contest was the Pitch Presentations, which occurred on February 7-8, 2024. Contestants pitched their mobile app concept and development plan to a panel of School of Information Technology faculty judges who evaluated and scored the projects and selected those who advanced to the final phase. Five entries were advanced to the final phase.
The final phase of the contest was the Final Presentation of the working application, which occurred on April 11, 2024. Conteststants demonstrated their working application to a panel of State Farm mobile app developers, who evaluated and scored the apps, and selected the winners. MAD Contest 2024 winners are:
1st Place: Lucy Harazin—ProCATstination—Time management app with a tamagotchi pet similator game component so good time management makes a healthy happy cat, and poor time management not so much.
2nd Place: Alex Thomas & Brendan Czajka—Smart Eats—An app that leverages image recognition and a speedy logging solution to track calories faster than ever.
3rd Place: Max Shepherd—Food Finder—An app that lets you find new places to eat in your area, in a fun game-like way.
4th Place: Jenny Lin—CRMini—An application designed to help small businesses and organizations collect attendees’ information during an event.
We look forward to seeing the innovative concepts students develop for the MAD Contest in the years to come.
