2016 Code for the Mission Awards Winning Apps That Support UCLA Mission
2016 Code for the Mission Awards Winning Apps That Support UCLA Mission
By Adeney Zo
OIT Staff
Chancellor Gene Block presented the winners of UCLA’s third annual Code for the Mission student app design competition at an awards ceremony on Thursday, September 15 during the Office of Information Technology’s Mobility & Modern Web Conference. Winning teams in each of the contest tracks -- Education, Research and Service -- were awarded $5,000 each and each of the developers of the final app product of “Team Up With the Chancellor,” a joint collaboration between student technologists and the chancellor, were awarded $1,000.
“Code for the Mission is an example of the UCLA entrepreneurial spirit,” said Chancellor Gene Block. “It gives [the students] a real sense of launching an idea in today’s digital economy.”
The collaboration between the chancellor and UCLA undergraduate students Adam Garcia, Will Gu and Tanuj Lalwani, resulted in “Record,” a meeting productivity app which uses voice recognition and word space models to determine what biases and disparities exist in the meeting dialogue, categorized by gender and ethnicity.
Education: Inspiring Women in STEM
App: Agent XX
UCLA undergraduate Megan Williams and her triplet sisters, Alicia and Stephanie, took home the prize with “Agent XX,” an educational game that transports players on a mission through time in pursuit of the story’s villain, Dr. Evila. Along the way, players encounter 20 historical women in STEM, who give key lessons about their field of specialty. This app was created to “educate and excite young women in STEM.”
Research: mHealth: Sensors, Wearables, Data Dashboards
App: ChatterBaby
UCLA researcher Ariana Anderson, graduate student Usha Nookala, staff member Yining Zhao and undergraduate Lauren Dunlap created “ChatterBaby,” a baby monitor app for deaf parents that discriminates a baby’s cries and predicts the most likely cause of the cry, which include hungry, fussy, pain, neutral or happy. The creators noted that this software could be developed further to determine early signs of child developmental problems.
Service: Promoting Community Engagement and Civil Discourse
App: UCLA Volunteer Center
The UCLA Volunteer Center app, created by staff member Kathleen Ly and undergraduate Taylor Parker, compiles on-campus and off-campus volunteer opportunities from a variety of UCLA and local, community-based nonprofit organizations. The app allows users to view search results on either a calendar or a map, and the app filters searches by location, date, and interest. Volunteer Center staff review all the event submissions to check for legitimacy and quality before adding them to the app database.
Read more about the winning apps in the UCLA Newsroom article.