GT1K - GT1000 Mobile Application
A multi-platform mobile application to help connect 2200 students, faculty and team leaders
Background
GT1K is a mobile application under development for the course GT1000 at Georgia Tech taken by around 2000 students with the support from Center of Academic Success. It will help connect students, faculty and administrators by overcoming the several barriers and issues in the current technologies used by Georgia Tech such as T-square, Zimbra and Buzzport. Issues such as inability to send instant notifications to students, absence of chat messaging and comprehensive guide to campus resources will be addressed through this mobile application.
Summary
The development for this application began during a hack-a-thon where my colleague, Tim and I worked on design and implementation of the app after analyzing the requirements given by Dr. Nirmal Trivedi, the director of Freshman Reading Program and GT1000 at Georgia Tech. We both worked for 16 hours and made a working prototype on the mobile platform Android.
The GT1000 program is structured as follows: Program Director -> TLAB (Team Leader Advisory Board) / Instructors -> Team Leaders -> Students.
The prototype has the following features:
- Push Notifications - The ability to send push notifications instantly to all mobile devices, taking care of several privacy issues. It uses Google Cloud Messaging and some basic web based back end developed in PHP and HTML. Through this feature a person on top of the hierarchy can send instant announcements about latest events, important updates and information to anyone in the bottom of the hierarchy.
- Chat Rooms - Any individual can create different kinds of chat-rooms with several options for managing one's privacy. For instance, an instructor can create an open chat-room where all the students in a class and team leaders can interact with each other by asking questions, opening discussions etc. Also, a TL can create a chat-room getting in touch with their students.
- Resources - A comprehensive guide to several resources on campus and weekly modules to assist the instructors, TLs and students in their activities.
