Aaron Garcia

I am currently developing an app called Shuttle Tracker for iOS. I have taken on the project as part of an elective course; formally known as MIS 4399 iOS App Development.

I first came up with the idea during my sophomore year at the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) while a friend and I were waiting for the campus shuttle. Since the shuttle doesn’t run on a set schedule – it’s hard to know when it will arrive. A decision had to be made: would it be faster to walk or wait for the shuttle?

There’s nothing worse than waiting 15-25 minutes for a shuttle; deciding to walk, a half-mile, only to get passed up by the shuttle and arrive extremely late to class.

With the app I am developing – there will no longer be a need to make such an uninformed decision again! The app will determine where the shuttles are located on campus, which shuttle is the closest to the student, how long it will take for the closest shuttle to reach the student’s current location and then how long it will take to reach the student’s final destination. The app will also compare how long it would take to walk to the student’s final destination vs taking the shuttle. Then the app will either suggest to walk or wait for the shuttle

Generally, it isn’t recommended to share your app ideas with the public before the app is available in the App Store, but for the class, I needed to run through the whole process of creating an app and marketing it.

Since publishing our apps to the App Store isn’t a requirement – the only way to simulate the demand for our app would be to measure the number of likes it receives on Facebook.

So far, Shuttle Tracker has received 60 likes organically. That means, even after I was awarded $50 from Facebook for receiving 50 likes for my app – I did not utilize their targeted advertising tools. I didn’t want my app to go UIW viral until after I finished it and had it up in the App Store.

Even while trying to keep mum about the app I managed to have a feature article written about it in the LOGOS, UIW’s student newspaper. Perhaps at this point, it wouldn’t matter if I used the targeted advertising tools or not – it already has the potential of attracting a lot of attention! I have been told that the article should be coming out in their next issue.

Shuttle Tracker was never intended as just a class project – it has always been something more. And since it’s designed specifically for the students at UIW, it’s only right that they get to witness it develop. I hope to continue working on the app long after I graduate in May. But, until the app is complete, I’ll try to keep the megaphone’s volume on 1.

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!