The second annual Westchester County competition was held on Friday at Pace University. More details can be found by clicking here.
The "Rock Club" of Mamaroneck High School was the "Grand Prize" winning team in this year's #WestchesterSmart Mobile App Development Bowl awards. The top prize included $1,000 cash and Panasonic tech gear.
Teams from eight high schools and colleges took home cash awards. Two additional Mamaroneck High teams placed third in other App award categories. High school teams from Irvington, Mount Vernon and Yonkers also won cash prizes.
Sponsored by County Executive Rob Astorino and Pace’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, Friday's competition challenged students to create a mobile app that might improve the quality of life for people over 64 years old. Ideas ranged from health and memory to finance and money.
“The #WestchesterSmart Mobile App Development Bowl sends a strong statement to our students – as well as our communities and businesses – that Westchester is a place where smart things are happening,” Astorino said in a press statement.
Mamaroneck High's winning Rock Club created an app that serves as a “one stop shop” for senior citizens to resolve technical issues. After interviewing seniors about their most common issues with technology, the team found that most fit into three broad categories: problems with vision, problems with hearing and problems with dexterity.
“We hope to solve all these with our app,” Mamaroneck's top team said during its presentation to judges. “Seniors rely on the younger generation to help them with technology. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way in which seniors could use their mobile devices without consulting others?”
In addition to the grand prize, cash prizes of $500, $350 and $150 were awarded in four different subcategories: "Oceans Seven," another team entered by Mamaroneck High School, took third place in the "Digital Catnip Creativity" category. And OX 4D48S3, another team from Mamaroneck High School, took third place for "Mobile App Functionality."
Jigar Jadav, a computer science teacher at Mamaroneck High, also led a winning team of students during last year's Westchester Smart Mobile App Competition as reported by Daily Voice.
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