The BCS appathon challenge at Greenwich

The BCS Appathon set out to engage during one hour as many people as possible in the UK in programming an app for their mobile phones. It took place on the 9th June 2015, between 10.30 and 11.30, at a number of UK venues, one of which was the University of Greenwich. Many people now rely on their mobile phones and, daily, use a variety of apps on them, but few have any knowledge of how an app has been developed. The Appathon aimed not merely to give participants an understanding of app development - its ambitious aim was to get participants to create their own simple app during a one-hour, highly-interactive workshop. The workshop then continued on into the afternoon, allowing Appathon attendees to work individually or in small groups, developing apps of their own design. In the concluding session, participants had the opportunity to present their apps in a recorded show-and-tell activity. The apps developed ranged from simple games to such novel applications as an app to count the number of revolutions completed by a figure skater. The success of the Appathon has encouraged staff in the Department of Computing and Information Sciences at Greenwich to consider how it could be deployed to first-year students, who, although they may well be active smart phone users, may also find programming difficult and lack confidence when starting to learn how to do it. We are also investigating how the Appathon can be used to engage students in schools and develop their interest in studying Computer and Information Sciences. By putting first-year students through the Appathon experience, we hope to create a large pool of student ambassadors who can work with us in taking the Appathon to local schools and using it as a taster event at our open days