The College of Media and Communication and the Edward E. Whitacre College of Engineering hosted the first ever 24 hour TTU Appathon Friday and Saturday at the Livermore Center on campus. Five teams of engineering and communication students competed against each other, coding and designing for an entire day to make the best possible mobile app from scratch for the popular “Humans vs. Zombies” game. By the end of the competition, three teams of students had dropped out.
The winning team, composed of Carlos Alban, Sami Suteria, and Christopher Phelan, used a combination of Objective-C, HTML, and CSS to build their iPhone app “TTU HvZ.” The app’s features included a “call for help” button, a mission page, a UAV-inspired map with GPS functionality, and original artwork.
Code Hard 2: Code Harder.
Carlos Alban, a sophomore computer engineering major, said he was fired up about winning the competition.
“I’m excited and relieved,” Alban said. “It’s tiring to stare at a computer screen for 24 hours.”
The team focused their efforts on finding a good balance between useful functionality and well-designed aesthetics.
“We wanted to make the app very user-friendly, so we used a lot of color,” Alban said. “Some of the pages look very different in terms of color and design. We wanted it to look clean and professional, but also fun.”
Live Free or Code Hard.
Each member of the winning team received brand new iPad minis. The event coordinators are currently considering hosting another TTU Appathon this fall.
Follow me @TaylorShofner
About Taylor Shofner
Hey! Is there anyway to see the apps that were made? I would love to look at the design of all the apps.
I’ve emailed those in charge to see if that would be possible. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear back!