YUSU Welfare officer Bob Hughes has warned students to be vigilant after a student loans phishing scam has been revealed.
Her Majesty the Queen will be visiting York on Maundy Thursday, 5th April, as part of the 800th anniversary of York’s Charter for the traditional “Royal Maundy” ceremony.
A flood caused by a heating system “failure” forced the university IT services to shut down many essential systems on Sunday night, causing problems for many students on the eve of their exams and assignment due-dates.
Over 95% of emergency calls to Campus Security were answered within 15 seconds, it has been revealed.
A group of York students has won the opportunity to have their very own I-phone application developed after winning The App Challenge final, held at the Ron Cooke Hub on Wednesday, January 18.
Team Banter Apps, comprised of Harry Clementson, Kieran Douglas and Saikiran Mohan, won the prize after beating off stiff competition from six other teams with their ‘Photo Diary’, an app which would allow users to create their own diary using photos taken each day.
They will now see their app developed by professional marketing agency The Distance which is based at the University of York. The team will work with the firm on all aspects of the app, including design, implementation and marketing.
Each team gave a ten minute presentation to the judging panel, which included Charles Cecil MBE, head of software firm “Revolution” and Lee Stott, head UK academic evangelist for Microsoft. This was then followed by a question and answer session where students were expected to explain the finer points of their idea.
Winning team Banter Apps, told The Yorker: “We are delighted, and it still hasn't sunk in. We believed in our idea but we thought it was too simple to impress the judges. In the end, it was probably the simplicity that won it for us!
“We are eagerly anticipating the first stages of development. It is an incredible opportunity to have our idea made a reality, and after many hours of designing and thinking we can't wait to see it actually working,” they added.
During their presentation, Banter Apps highlighted how their app would be used to modernise traditional diary keeping methods. The team said they would initially provide the app for the free, and then provide it at a cost once it has gained a reputation and all bugs have been ironed out. They were keen to emphasise that it isn’t photo manipulation software, but provided a unique way to record your day.
Ideas from other teams included an app to help travel abroad, called Origems, which would help students find voluntary work and internships abroad as well as trip opportunities. A more lighthearted suggestion was for the “Social Bible” which would provide advice to avoid awkward social situations, although the judging panel said that they would have liked to hear the kind of advice that would be on the app.
The judges also heard a pitch from environmentally-friendly app E-Recylce, which aimed to help people understand complex recycling arrangements, as well as an app called ‘Timeline’ which look to create the opportunity for combining a calendar, alarms, notes and reminders all on one app.
Another strong contender was Pig In Muck, who probably provided the most complex app as they looked to move the traditional card trading games onto smartphones. The final contender was an app called Red City, a party planning app.
Matthew Freckleton, of political aggregator website Yatterbox who supported the event, told The Yorker: "The level of presentations and the effort that all the teams have put in was a really high quality” and he added that “all the judges were very impressed with the turnout and the idea put forward".
"It was great to have so many students show interest in this area of education, we will be following this up with future events," he said.
The app should be available within the next couple of months, you can follow the team on twitter at [www.twitter.com/PhotoDiaryApp www.twitter.com/PhotoDiaryApp].
You must log in to submit a comment.
