Georgia Southern University will be conducting a mobile app creation competition stretching over the course of this semester with hopes of connecting students from the various colleges.

“What we really want to achieve is that people from business, IT and other colleges will be talking together and learning to speak each others’ language,” Dr. Karin Scarpinato, associate academic dean for the College of Science and Mathematics, said.

Students will submit an idea for an app online and attend the mandatory orientation on Feb. 1 at 3 p.m. There they will be briefed on the general rules and guidelines and form teams.

The teams will have until Feb. 22 to submit one page on the concept of the proposed app.

From there, teams will be invited to present a storyboard on March 15. Following that, there will be workshops available on how to design, develop and code the app, as well as figure out a business plan.

The final presentation will be May 3, where selected groups will make a five minute presentation with the pilot app, submit a business plan and assessment of functionality and market availability.

The winning team will receive $500.

The idea was the product of an interdisciplinary faculty steering committee.

The steering committee consists of Dr. Chris Welter, assistant professor at College of Business Administration; Dr. Emil Iacob, a lecturer for the Department of Mathematical Science; Dr. Charles Patterson, vice president of research; Dr. Tom Case, department chair for the Department of Information Systems and Scarpinato.

“It provides a very nice platform for anything interdisciplinary, and it is shown that people are using more and more apps in terms of finding something,” Scarpinato said.

There are several events similar to this one at other universities; the hope is to host a competition for outside universities to come and compete here as well. This will be kept within GSU for this year and the following year, Case said.

“We want to bring visibility to the university’s efforts in innovation,” Patterson said.

The app idea can be about anything, Scarpinato said.

“We are looking for strong student involvement. Students will be guided through the process, but they need to bring their drive and innovation to the project,” Patterson said.

The winning team will be the one to win the $500, but if there is another team that the panel believes deserves a chance to create an app, help will be provided to that team as well, Scarpinato said.