They say there’s an app for everything, but that’s not quite true, as university students continue coming with new twists on smartphone-based software.
There are countless new mobile apps developed each week, but here are three of the latest being developed by university students across the U.S.
Four University of Mississippi students recently collected $15,000 in cash prizes for developing the Regulated University Marketplace Internet Exchange, or Rumie. Using Rumie, university students can buy and sell clothes, furniture, books or anything else they’d like to trade in for quick cash. The app’s creators told the Daily Journal they came up with the idea after realizing they had a surplus of lamps in their dorm room. “The easiest way to describe it is Craigslist, but for college students,” said Patrick Phillips, one of the creators.
James Bell, a British man studying at Cleary University in Michigan, recently developed Book!t, an app that helps users find and book local activities. Bell told the Livingston Daily he came up with the idea after the COVID-19 travel ban prevented him from flying home, while the rest of his residence hall emptied out. “I want it to be all-encompassing,” said Bell, who graduated with his MBA in 2021. “Bowling, golf, laser tag, miniature golf. We’re talking to ice rinks and also indoor skydiving to see if they want to get on board. Truly the opportunities are endless with this booking system.”
A group of students at Pennsylvania State University are developing a mobile app that uses machine learning to support the particular challenge set faced by Black mothers. The students partnered with MOMLogics, a community advocacy group, with the goal of developing an app that includes a journal, messaging, coaching and health tracking elements. Developers said they want to predict and prevent various physical and mental health ailments commonly afflicting Black mothers. “The stereotype is that a Black mom is a bonnet-wearing, single, welfare recipient,” MOMLogics founder Lavelle Smith Hall told the university. “There is also this intercultural pressure to be a supermom — we want to do it all on our own and we don’t need any support or help.”
