Student Creates Unsanctioned iPhone App for Cal Poly Pomona

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 08/09/10

A student at California State Polytechnic University Pomona has developed an iPhone app to provide news and information about his school after teaching himself iPhone programming from a book. Cal Poly Pomona Central, developed by Shawn Irvin, a computer information systems major, is available free in the iTunes store.

Irvin learned iPhone programming from Apress' Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK. The campus app took him about two weeks to develop.

Version 2.0 of the app includes the ability to browse articles from campus publications; pull up campus departments with location, phone, and fax; find athletic events and add them to the calendar; sign up for campus notifications; track homework, meetings, and reminders in a "My Notes" section; and get campus maps. But the feature that gets "the best reaction," he said, is one that allows users to find out what food is available on campus and whether or not the given restaurant is open at the time it's being viewed.

Although a number of campuses have released similar apps, Irvin said he only knows of two, "and I didn't need them to get inspiration." The program hasn't been officially sanctioned by the school, he added. "I've talked to many people [at Cal Poly Pomona], but nobody wants to take it on. It's always because of money."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • AI robot with cybersecurity symbol on its chest

    Microsoft Adds New Agentic AI Tools to Security Copilot

    Microsoft has announced a major expansion of its AI-powered cybersecurity platform, introducing a suite of autonomous agents to help organizations counter rising threats and manage the growing complexity of cloud and AI security.

  • laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Study: Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and business workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • stacks of glowing digital documents with circuit patterns and data streams

    Mistral AI Introduces AI-Powered OCR

    French AI startup Mistral AI has launched Mistral OCR, an advanced optical character recognition (OCR) API designed to convert printed and scanned documents into digital files with "unprecedented accuracy."

  • open laptop in a college classroom with holographic AI icons like a brain and data charts rising from the screen

    4 Ways Universities Are Using Google AI Tools for Learning and Administration

    In a recent blog post, Google shared an array of education customer stories, showcasing ways institutions are using AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM to transform both learning and administrative tasks.