Student App Helps Keep Track of UTD Events

Application to scan posters, add items to calendar

Navigating the galaxies of campus activities, events and
clubs can be dizzying. That’s why four computer science freshmen set out to
make charting the course a little easier for Comets.

Khalid Hossain, Cady Baltz, Christina Abraham and Supratik
Pochampally recently placed second in the 2019 T-Mobile Hacktober Hackathon.
Now, the team has claimed first place in the Student Government category for
the 2019 UTD Hackathon by specifically designing an app that benefits the
campus. Hossain said the all-night coding experience was intense — and well
worth it.

“The problem we saw — my team and I — is that we see all
these flyers everywhere. We sometimes are very interested in them, but we’re
running to class, we’re going places, we don’t really have the time to stop and
really take in the information in the posters,” Hossain said. “And so, what we
decided, was what if these posters were much more interactive in a much faster
way?”

To utilize the app, users simply point their phone’s camera
at a poster or flyer, triggering a pop-up on their phone, containing all the
information about the advertised event. From there, users can download all the
information directly to their default calendar.

Gone are the days of snapping photos of posters, then
forgetting about them. The app, Hossain said, is appropriately coined “Orbit”
for its ability to encourage Comets to more effectively navigate activities
around campus. Abraham also said Orbit is meant to stimulate student
engagement.

“We really hope it can get students more involved on
campus,” Abraham said. “You’re always passing these posters on your way to
class, and you never really take the time to think about or interact with them,
or just think about what interests you.”

Designing and coding an app within 24 hours came with its
fair share of challenges. Baltz said one difficult problem was coming up with
their idea to begin with.

“We basically completely started from scratch I’d say around
five or six p.m.,” Baltz said. “I think that’s a problem with lots of
Hackathons: you start working on something, and then you realize, ‘Oh, wait,
this is not going to work’ — and you’re still within that 24-hour time span.”

Although Baltz and Abraham had some prior experience coding
for iOS devices, Hossain and Pochampally said the development code for Orbit
was mostly new to them.

“The biggest challenge was we had to learn as we went,”
Pochampally said. “There weren’t many Internet resources where we could find
these frameworks. So, we were trying to figure out the whole framework by
ourselves.”

Despite the bumpy start, Hossain said that it was surprising
how straightforward the project flowed after the initial set-up, when they
began to code.

 “Just the bugs and
errors (and) starting it up were problems,” Hossain said. “We just realized,
this is some powerful technology, but it’s really accessible as well.”

Orbit may even end up extending its reach beyond campus.
Hossain said the team has contacted a few companies about implementing the app
in the greater Dallas area.

“After the T-Mobile Hackathon, we were invited to this
networking event with people from all over Dallas, mostly creative arts
specialists. We discussed our apps with them and what we’ve done,” Hossain
said. “We want to do this on a large scale for the murals around uptown Dallas
and Deep Ellum, and we’re working with artists there so we can make their
murals interactive.”

While the app isn’t available to be downloaded yet, Hossain
said the four designers have been talking with student government about
integrating Orbit directly into the UTD mobile app.

“We feel like it’s a really long-term scalable solution as
well, because once people begin getting involved just through this app, then
they kind of stay involved through their college career,” Pochampally said.
“And it’s all thanks to their first attempt to try and put themselves out
there.”