A student team from Cab Calloway School of the Arts has been selected as one of 24 teams nationwide to advance to the top round of the Verizon Innovative App Challenge. Its winning app, dubbed VirDoc, gives the user the ability to dissert and interact with a well-rendered cadaver.
Competing students are asked to design a mobile application concept that addresses a need in their communities.
The Cab Calloway team, which has already won $5,000 for the school, includes students Minji Kong, Adam Udovich, MIlli Bravo, Javon Kitson, Julia Menardi and Joy Lin .
The judges have interviewed them and the winners of the final round of the competition will be announced today.
In this round, eight best-in-national teams will earn their schools additional $15,000 cash grants to support their STEM programs and each winning team member will receive a Samsung tablet and training in coding and app development from the Center for Mobile Learning at the MIT Media Lab.
The students talk about their app in this video:
Team Avocado (Cab Calloway School of the Arts) – VirDoc from Team Avocado on Vimeo.
Verizon collaborated with the Technology Student Association to create the app competition, now in its third year, after commissioning a survey focused on students’ use of mobile technology in the classroom.
The survey showed:
- Only one in three students use smartphones and tablets for homework.
- Only six percent of students are allowed to use smartphones in the classroom.
- Only 18 percent are permitted to use tablets in the classroom.
- Students who use mobile devices in the classroom show more interest in STEM subjects.
