Apps, Bernie and WiMax!

There really is an app for that!

Our first Mobile App Programming Seminar was a big hit!   Students from all over the university, alumni, staff, and other schools came together to learn about the wave of the future.  Programming for mobile phones.  Thanks to Sprint and Motorola we already have a jump start with the donation of mobile phones for our testing.   Due to the efforts of Tim Archer, USF Computer Science alumni and Director of Information and Administrative Services here at USF we had a wonderful event.  

Carlo Angelo of Sprint was kind enough to join us and give us a background of the cell phone and insight into the different technologies that we use.  Mr. Angelo let us know why we care about the GSM, WiMax, CDMA.

Tim  introduced the programming concepts behind mobile phones and introduced us to the framework that supports the Droid.   Then it was time for some hands-on work.   A number of participants had agreed to request access to the Google AppInventor project.

This is a programming interface that uses a building blocks approach to creating mobile apps.  The project is currently in a beta status so approval to join the project takes about a week. 

AppInventor Screen

Once a driver is installed on the PC for your phone you can download the AppInventor interface.

Thanks to the efforts of Tim Archer, T.J. Eakle, Computer Science Alumnus and Applications Programmer,  &  Dave Senior Information Technology Alumnus and Microcomputer Support Specialist, and Luis Escorz, Information Technology senior and intern, the computers in the A102 lab were setup to use Google AppInventor and our new donated phones ahead of time.   


With Tim Archer’s expert guidance the participants built their own ‘Pet Bernie’ app.  When the screen with Bernie’s picture on it is touched or shaken, Bernie barks.  As an added bonus, Tim also showed us how to use the bar code scanner logic.

Everyone attending left wanting to come back for more.  So stay tuned for more events this coming Spring.  

And if you want to get set for the future, plan on enrolling in Comp 494 – Programming for the Droid, Fall 2011.  A prerequisite of either Comp 140, Computer Science I (C++) or Comp 253 Java will be needed.  

Tim Archer

Thanks to Tim Archer, Computer Science alumnus and Director of Information and Administrative Services here at USF for coordinating and presenting such a great and successful event.

Here at USF Computer Science we are the sum of our people and we have very good people, indeed!