Apex AIOT Students Make Apps at Progress

Progress® began what we plan to be an ongoing work-based learning partnership in software technologies this week. 30 students from the Apex, NC High School Academy of Information Technology (AIOT) joined Director John Evans to visit the Progress office in Morrisville for their App Development Challenge.

Students toured the Morrisville Data Center, met sales and marketing employees and visited with developers and systems engineers.

Learning low code development with Progress Rollbase

Before the main event—a competitive hackathon to build web apps and mobile apps—Apex AIOT learned how to use Progress® Rollbase® to build software applications. Product Marketing Manager Paul Nashawaty explained how the low code, rapid application development Rollbase platform enables developers to make apps by:

• Using pre-made application templates, or building apps from scratch
• Connecting to, or uploading, one or more data sources
• Enabling model-driven, step-by-step application creation
• Using drag and drop, point and click tools to create triggers and alerts
• Viewing user interfaces while developing
• Deploying apps quickly to any device or cloud 

15 Apps Built in 1.5 Hours

Using Rollbase, students embarked on the First Annual AIOT App Development Challenge. Breaking up into two-person teams, the students created 15 proof-of-concept (POC) applications in one marathon, 90-minute session. In a business environment, such POCs could be presented to a customer or development team as prototypes for further collaboration, iteration and discussion before full development.

The app POCs were as varied and inventive as you might imagine. Students employed publicly available data to create applications for a range of uses, including healthcare, lifestyle and education.

Among the standouts:

• Smart Fashion: Using sensor data and wearable technology, one team created a lifestyle app for choosing wardrobes based on both the weather outside and the state of one’s closet. The clever application reads weather sensors placed on the outside of a house as well as radio frequency identification (RFID) chips embedded in clothing. By evaluating both the location (inside a closet or inside a laundry hamper, for example) of a piece of clothing and the state of the weather, the application makes recommendations for users about what to wear.
• Smart Study: Using a publicly available encyclopedia of birds and mobile device camera functionality, a team created an app for ornithologists and bird watching hobbyists to identify the birds they “catch” with their phone cameras. The app analyzes photos to calculate bird captures and automatically categorizes the user’s finds.
• Smart Health: One team created an intuitive POC for healthcare management with the popular, widely available Fitbit device.

Replicating STEM success

The enthusiasm and inventiveness displayed by the AIOT students has encouraged Progress to increase efforts to widen this science, technology, electronics and maths (STEM) program to many other cities around the US and the world. Telerik, a Progress company, is embarking on similar programs in Europe in the coming year as well.  Said Paul Nashawaty:

Low code development platforms like Rollbase enable young people to bring their ideas to reality quickly. Giving students an early taste of success in STEM topics can only build their enthusiasm for these practical sciences that are so necessary for the future success of us all.

To keep up with the futures of the talented developers of Apex AIOT, follow the program on Twitter. For more information about Progress application development technologies, contact us today.