Among those students are Sanskriti Sinha, Prakhar Parakh and Devam Antahal. Their app is called 90 + 4’, a one-stop-shop for football fans. 90 + 4’ keeps you up-to-date with the latest football news from around the world.“We understand that being a football fan is not just about watching the matches; it’s about being part of the conversation. It’s a community of passionate football lovers,” says Parakh, who is in his final year of graduation at the university. The app provides real-time updates on ongoing matches, and gives scores, minute-by-minute commentary, and even video highlights. What’s interesting about the app is that the student developers have made it for watchOS and visionOS as well. “90 + 4’ is not just an app; it’s a community of passionate football lovers,” says Sinha.
There’s another trio of young students who have developed Circles, an app that they say is all about enhancing social experiences. “Our primary focus is on initiating the initial phase of group planning, which is bringing people together and fostering a collaborative environment,” says Niya Shameer, who will soon be attending a university in Geneva. Circles is a social media app and the idea is to streamline the early planning stages of any sort of meet-up with friends and family, making it more engaging, efficient, and productive for everyone involved.
A couple of years ago, the university management decided that they wanted to give engineering students hands-on experience about getting building and creating apps. Professor C Muthamizhchelvan, vice chancellor, SRM University, says that the idea was to get students ready for future challenges in the industry. That’s when the idea to integrate app development — only iOS — in the curriculum took place. Hundreds of students expressed interest — and not just those in the computer and electronics engineering stream — even though the course is currently an elective. “We do plan to give academic credit to students in the future,” says Muthamizhchelvan.
Apple has been working with the university and the students in helping them develop apps. All the students were given MacBook Pros by the university. There were interactive sessions with Apple experts, who have helped students at all stages of app development. “For me, it has been an unreal experience working on the app and learning the nitty gritties of what goes behind it,” says Aniket Singh, who has developed an app called HappyPaws for your pet friends. Students learned how to work on Swift, which is Apple’s programming language. As the students code, they’re learning Swift and SwiftUI, the programming technologies created by Apple and used by professionals to build many of today’s most popular apps. With Swift Playgrounds, students can experiment and share their apps with educators, friends, and families.
The support from Apple has been on multiple levels, say the students. Not just that, all those who were selected to be a part of the elective, got a one-month internship at Infosys. “The internship gave us an idea about the workings of a big tech company and certainly helped a lot,” says Advikaa Ramesh, who has built Beam, an app focused on mental health and well-being.
What next for these student developers
Almost all students are hopeful that their apps land on the App Store. They are also aware that it won’t be an easy task as Apple’s guidelines are rather strict. “We have done our best and want to ensure that the app reaches a wider audience,” says Rush Kothari, who made HappyPaws with Singh.
Not all of them, however, want to pursue app development in the future. “It has been a great learning experience but too early to say if this is what I want to pursue,” says Vashisht Agarwalla, who has a keen interest in filmmaking and took up the elective as he was curious to solve a ‘problem’ he and his friends faced. That’s how Circles came about, he explains.
The university, on the other hand, is delighted with the response it has received for the iOS app development elective. “We are delighted to work with Apple and Infosys on this and it can only help our students going forward,” says Muthamizhchelvan.