Show your mobile application development skills with IEEE madC 

 Lee Crudgington

The application deadline for this annual mobile application development competition IEEE madC 2018 is on October 10th.

2017 was a hugely successful year for the IEEEmadCprogramme, an annual mobile application development competition for students worldwide. The competition had 560 ideas accepted into the line-up and 60 fully completed apps which made it all the way to the Google, Apple or Microsoft app stores. The prizes for last year’s winning teams included over $5000 of give-aways and an Apple iPad + iWatch, in addition to prizes on offer from local student branches, with even more great awards to be confirmed for this year’s teams.

For students, entering IEEEmadC is a great gateway to the app development community, and is a fantastic way to develop amazing new skills, meet a variety of great friends and contacts, and discover the countless resources and community available to IEEE members worldwide. Participating in IEEEmadC is also a great addition to any student CV and a good conversation point in any upcoming job interview!

A key theme of the 2017 competition entries was in the field of mHealth. The mobile revolution has had a profound effect in the field of healthcare, with the provision of health-related services via mobile platforms showing a surge in popularity. This is partly due to huge pressures on government departments to deal with epidemics such as the Ebola outbreak, and the relative shortage of healthcare professionals in developing regions. These mHealth services offer collection and conveyance of clinical health data via the mobile network, delivery of healthcare information, and real-time monitoring of a patient’s data biotelemetry. Enormous potential exists in these regions to offer alternatives for routine health-related tasks to become automated via these mobile platforms, with the potential to save countless lives in the process.

The 2017 competition winning app, SOS, from the SSN College of Engineering in the IEEE Madras Section, consists of team members Adithya J, Adiya Manoharan and Vishwanath Jeyaraman. Their beautiful material-design app to digitise some important aspects of patient healthcare, such as the ordering of medications, collection of prescription and medical reports, to registering as a blood donor and reporting a medical emergency, and couldn’t be simpler. The team commented ‘The app we’ve made tries to solve many of the issues faced by Indians in healthcare. We have seen applications to book tickets on the go, and applications to transfer money on the go. We believe that it’s about time such an application existed in the healthcare sector and this could potentially save your life in your time of need. We think this will bring positive changes to the community.’ The IEEE Computer Society special award 2017 was presented to the author behind Clean Sea, from the IEEE UNIFACS Student branch, IEEE Brazil Section. Student Rafael Solis Melo has developed the Android app which allows users to view the cleanliness of beaches around the region, via a simple map interface, based on a number if information sources in order to help tourists and locals decide if the sea is safe to bathe, surf or swim. The app additionally provides information on how to recognise sources of contamination and methods everyone can employ to keep water pollution to a minimum.

Students are invited to compete individual or in teams of up to three, and any undergraduate, graduate or PhD can compete. Teams are welcome to submit up to three app ideas if they are feeling keen, and the only requirement is that the developed app is aligned with the IEEE values of ‘Advancing Technology for Humanity’, designed to benefit the fields technology, science or education. The app entries are judged by a panel of experts, and take into account many criteria including the overall design quality, the UX functionality, the usefulness of the app and the availability to its users.

The first phase of the 2018 IEEEmadC competition, the Idea Stage, has begun, registration has been extended until October 10th, and students can now submit their ideas they would like to develop. If these ideas are accepted by the judging teams then the entrants can soon progress to the Development Stage. Teams will then have a number of weeks to write, test and refine their app designs, before submitting the files, code, GitHub links and any promotional materials or documentation before the deadline. After the deadline the judges will begin reviewing the apps in the Judging Stage, and the winners will then be announced with fantastic prizes awarded!