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02/15/2017
By Ed Brennen

Anyone can dream up a good idea for a mobile application. But not everyone has the technical skills required to turn their idea into a real-life app that people can tap and swipe on their phones.

Thanks to a collaboration with Prof. Fred Martin of the Computer Science Department, students in Assoc. Prof. Harry Zhu鈥檚 Business Application Development course are now turning their personal finance app ideas into reality 鈥� in just one semester.

Using technology called 鈥淎ppVis,鈥� Manning School of Business students with little to no coding experience are learning to create sophisticated mobile apps in a visual, graphical interface with drag-and-drop building blocks. Developed by Martin and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, AppVis combines the with iSENSE, Martin鈥檚 web system for sharing and visualizing scientific data.

鈥淧eople see 4,000 lines of code and think they could never do programming,鈥� says Joshua Bedard, a junior business administration major with a concentration in management information systems (MIS) who was among the first of Zhu鈥檚 students to learn AppVis in the fall. 鈥淏ut when you see it in this format, anyone can do it.鈥�

The course, which is an MIS requirement, introduces students to the Java programming language to help prepare them for careers that will likely intertwine with information technology fields. In previous years, Zhu鈥檚 students would design their 鈥渋deal鈥� app and implement what they could using their nascent Java skills. This year, students are still learning Java 鈥� but they鈥檙e spending the final month of the course learning AppVis from Martin and his assistants, and then working in small teams to build the Android apps.

鈥淭he main objective is to allow students to solve problems that matter to them by applying programming concepts learned in the course,鈥� says Zhu, who has worked with Martin on several grant proposals related to the app-building technology over the past two years. 鈥淪tudents are taking what they learn in Java programming and applying it to App Inventor鈥檚 visual programming environment. The versatility of the tool sparks new ideas and unleashes students鈥� creativity.鈥�

Among the first apps created in the fall were several interest-rate and tax calculators, a stock visualizer and 鈥淭he Gold Standard,鈥� which shows real-time pricing of precious metals. Junior business administration major Roma Aurora teamed with Josie Nou and Ronald Ramirez on the wryly named 鈥淕o Fund Yourself,鈥� a budget planner that helps users visualize their savings goals.

鈥淒eveloping an application is the coolest thing I鈥檝e ever done,鈥� says Aurora, who is now considering adding MIS to her marketing and finance concentrations. 鈥淭he project really opened my eyes to how much business is related to technology. That鈥檚 where the future is.鈥�

Martin, who sat in on the students鈥� final app presentations, was struck by how excited they were to use the technology.

鈥淧rof. Zhu had them walk through their code in their presentations, and it was clear to me that they were confident in their ability to execute their ideas,鈥� says Martin, who was assisted during the AppVis training by senior computer science major Ashley Hale and Farzeen Harunani, who earned a master鈥檚 degree in computer science in December.

While students were supposed to develop an app related to personal finances, Bedard and his teammates, Nzeako Egwuenu and Jeremy Williams, went in a different direction and created a flash card application called 鈥淪tudy Break.鈥�

鈥淲e went completely off the trail, but I think we can do something with this beyond the class,鈥� says Bedard, whose team built the app with terms related to entrepreneurship and innovation 鈥� but who envisions it being tailored with vocabulary and concepts for any business course.

鈥淭he idea is to help students learn business acumen or to refresh what they know without having to find their book or notes,鈥� says Bedard, who can see the app helping prepare students for job interviews. 鈥淚f they ask you a question during an interview and you can鈥檛 respond in terms they want to hear, they don鈥檛 think you鈥檙e ready. Or when you go into an internship, there鈥檚 a learning curve for the acronyms and jargon they use.鈥�

Like most of his classmates, Bedard went into the project with minimal programming experience. He emerged with a newfound appreciation for interdisciplinary collaboration.

鈥淚f we had half business students and half computer science students in the same class, it would be incredible,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e have the business ideas, and they have the skill. That鈥檚 how it鈥檚 going to work in the real world.鈥�