Karen Panetta, the associate dean of graduate education at Tufts' Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and an active member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), has launched a software application contest, encouraging students to develop products that deal with world problems, like hunger and clean energy.
According to Panetta, the contest is part of an IEEE program called App-E-Feat. The program's website, explains that App-E-Feat attempts to place engineers with non-profit organizations seeking to create apps that benefit humanity.
Panetta explained that she was inspired to create the contest after listening to President Bill Clinton speak about his work aiding Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. She said she was intrigued by the Haitian's use of cellphones during that period.
"After the devastation in Haiti, people were using mobile apps to find out where the most damage was, [to] find out if loved ones were okay [and] where the nearest doctor was," she said.
The success of mobile apps in Haiti demonstrated to Panetta the potential usefulness of developing specialized mobile phone applications. She explained that these apps could allow organizations to address real-world problems in a simple and effective way.
"Why not get these organizations to put in their needs and go ahead and match engineers and anybody who wants to write an app for an organization that doesn't have any technology savvy people onboard but knows they need help," she said.
Chris McManes, the marketing communications and public relations coordinator of IEEE-USA explained that the use of technology to benefit humanity is a major goal of his, and of the Institute. He said that the applications produced through the contest would be beneficial because of the widespread use of cell phones throughout the world.
"We think the contest is a way for people to use modern technology to help less fortunate people," he said.
Panetta outlined the potential uses for the apps, which include tracking weather data for people suffering from a drought, tracking wells to insure their upkeep and providing education to girls in areas that lack access to formal educational institutions.
A major goal of the project was to involve both student engineers and other young people in the process of writing useful apps, Panetta explained. She explained that while many high school students do not have the software programming expertise to write apps, they have still generated useful ideas. There are two age divisions of the contest, she said. Students aged 13 through 17, who only need to come up with the idea, while college-aged students need to propose an idea and write the app.
Panetta explained that this differentiation of tasks for the two age groups means that the contest will award separate prizes for the different age groups.
"There will be different age categories; you are not going to judge a thirteen year old the way you are going to judge a fifteen or sixteen year old, so there will be tons of categories and lots of prizes," she said.
All of the applications will eventually be used by the non-profit organizations for which they were written, Panetta said. In addition, the top three finishers from each category will be assigned mentors to help improve the apps.
According to Dusty Fisher, Co-Chair of the IEEE-USA K-12 STEM Literacy Committee, the contest has already attracted a large number of potential applicants.
"We have had several hundred engineers signed up," she said.
Fisher also explained that the contest would likely attract even more submissions after April's USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C., during which the contest will be heavily advertised.
Panetta noted that she expects the total number of submissions to be in the thousands.
"Students want to do this, especially at Tufts
they will do this for free," she said. "Nobody believes you when you tell them it's for free, and it is totally free, and it will be the first time this matching has ever been done, with technology matching to missions doing social good."
Despite the expected success of the new contest this year, McManes said it will likely be only a one-year initiative.
