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My Experiences with App Development

I was first inspired to create an iPhone app by Steve Job’s presentation at the World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) in 2009. At the time I was a junior in high school and had just transitioned to Mac OS X after terrible experiences with Microsoft Vista and Hewlett-Packard’s customer service. I didn’t know much about Apple, but I knew I wanted to learn. The enthusiasm of Steve Job’s and the others who spoke at the WWDC was very inspirational.

It didn’t take long for me to register as a developer. From the developer member’s page, I was able to download early versions of XCode and the entire WWDC 2010 podcast. I found myself regularly coming up with ideas for apps, including one I called Shuttle Tracker.

The basic purpose of Shuttle Tracker would be to track the whereabouts of shuttles on university campuses. I have continuously developed the idea all the way into my senior year in college, which is when I was walking down the hallway and I saw a poster advertising the iOS App Development course. The poster read: “Open to all majors as a general elective. No experience required!” I immediately signed up to take the course during my last semester.

MIS 4399 iOS App Development is in its pilot stage. Only two institutions offer this course – Stanford University and the University of the Incarnate Word. By far, the difficulty of the material and expectations of the course are exceedingly high. However, the potential of the course is equally so.

Dr. Bo Han at the University of the Incarnate Word is by far the most enthusiastic professor I have ever met. Each lecture he came in ready to share knowledge that could potentially transform everyone in the room to the next self-made millionaire. I was very impressed with his enthusiasm. His enthusiasm was similar to that found on the stage of the WWDCs during Steve Job’s tenure at Apple. I found myself believing that each new line of code was going to change the world – as it already has proven true several times before!

He studied the material very hard and went beyond the two textbooks to develop practical explanations of what each line of code was doing. I cannot stress how much I really appreciated that.

The experience I gained from being exposed to Objective-C and Xcode has already increased my employability. The first question I am asked when meeting with business professionals is usually related to my experience with that course and my progress on the Shuttle Tracker app.

I was definitely challenged by this course. I learned a lot about something I knew very little about and now I can say I am on the right track I’m getting closer to reaching my goal. It won’t happen overnight, but with persistence and the instruction I have received – I know I can change the world!