Campus & community, Campus news

Apps by students, for students, downloadable now

By Anne Brice

Students at UC Berkeley have so much at their fingertips — hundreds of classes to choose from, campus activities and student groups to join — and now, they have a chance to develop Berkeley-centric mobile apps to help navigate the campus’s many resources.

student with ipad

Jasmine Hsu is a sophomore majoring in English at UC Berkeley. (UC Berkeley photo by Kevin Ho Nguyen)

The Mobile App Distribution — recently launched by the Student Technology Council — is a virtual venue for student developers to release and promote their campus mobile applications on the Apple App Store and Google Play under UC Berkeley’s official accounts.

Already, students have developed some useful apps that are available for download. SchedShare, created by sophomores Nikhil Mishra and Nikhil Rao, helps students manage their busy schedule, by allowing users to share their calendars with friends, find classmates to study with and even keep track of dining room hours and meal points.

BuyNearMe, developed by a group of friends at UC Berkeley, began in 2012 as a way to make trading easier. A year later, the app went live and is now a student-run social marketplace to help students buy and sell their stuff, from extra furniture to used textbooks.

The Student Technology Council encourages students to download the available apps and share their feedback with the developers and the council.

The council is a student-led organization founded in 2009 that voices student opinions and tackles new technology initiatives. It runs the Mobile App Distribution in partnership with campus Information Services and Technology.

To submit a proposal for a campus mobile app or to check out the latest apps for download, visit http://stc.berkeley.edu/mobile-app-distribution. Email questions to student.tech@berkeley.edu.