This project aims at creating a University-wide Open Collaborative Learning Laboratory (CityU Apps Lab) for enabling our CityU students to develop their own mobile software. The Apps Lab is a centralized hub that can provide fruitful resource support including essential hardware / software development tools for all the University members to develop innovative applications. The Apps Lab would consist of two groups of members: 1) Software developers, and 2) Idea providers. For instance, a group of students from the School of Creative Media (SCM) may raise an interesting idea about developing a mobile app for field-trip data collection; another group of student developers may use the Apps Lab to interact with the SCM students.
Currently, we have over 100 active members and trainers and completed 4 workshop series. Students with different level of technical background can also benefit from the Lab. For instance, experienced students or staff can group together and prepare for the Apple official Education trainer certificate. Inexperienced students can also enjoy the quick start tutorial provided by the Lab, and also receive support from the peers. We have also received support from a wide range of local industrial partners, around 20 local companies such as GreenTomato and Gravitas, which provide us professional consultation and advices. We are well connected to the major mobile industry vendors and device providers, such as Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Nokia, and Apple.
Continued software development is crucial to the evolution of Apps; most Apps software requires software updates for additional features and security measures. Thus, the existence of CityU Apps Lab is, in particular, very important because students can have a centralized hub to keep versioning control, and to collaborate during the software development process. The Apps lab offers regular seminars provided by the former CityU graduates, and also from the local Industry experts. Our CityU student graduates, who plan to start their career in the local Apps industry, can also use the Apps Lab as a gateway to connect to important people. Up to date, we have received four industrial cash and equipment generous donations.
Key deliverables:
If you have a technology/IP to sell or you are looking for a technology, a product or a solution to be listed for free or you are interested to invest in any project, pls contact Ms Bell Wong at belle.yl.wong@cityu.edu.hk.
