At the 12th app competition staged by Telekom Srbija, creative solutions for mobile apps were featured by gifted secondary-school students in an online presentation. The jury pronounced the following apps as the winners: Dođi na red (Queue up), a team from the grammar school Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Novi Sad,Tower Defense Game, a team from the grammar school Boljai, Senta, E-vent and Pawalk , teams from the grammar school Bora Stanković, Niš, and N-Era app, a team from the High School for Computing in Belgrade, and the company rewarded the teams of students and their mentors with Samsung Galaxy A53 mobile handsets. The winners of this year’s competition are to take part at the 6th Regional App Challenge, where they will compete with the teams from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro.
“Through its strategic programmes, Telekom Srbija remains keenly focused on the development of young talents who are drivers of positive changes in our society. We live at the time of advanced technologies and we are aware that they bring both good and less good effects. Our task is to help young people use all the benefits of modern technologies but also to focus together on the welfare they can foster. Smart and young heads swell with ideas and projects that might prospectively help someone. We firmly believe that this is the most appropriate way for these technologies to achieve their true, positive purpose”, said Marija Bošković, Telekom Srbija’s PR Department Manager.
The teams of students that attend specialized programmes customized for talents in the area of computing, IT and mathematics, were faced with a task to develop the apps that enrich and facilitate everyday life in the contemporary world of rapid communications. The jury made the decision based on the criteria related to the app’s functionality, the solution complexity, design, with special emphasis on its contribution to the enhanced usage of mobile devices, as well as the app’s socially responsible purpose.
Participation at the 12th mts app competition was an important and interesting experience for Boško Vasilić, Aleksa Dejanović and Marko Ristić from the grammar school Jovan Jovanović Zmaj in Novi Sad. “We have tried something new and we have seen interested works of other teams from all over Serbia. We invite secondary school students to take part in the next competition, to directly experience the team work and the work in the IT industry”, said the Macrohard team members.
The members of the SiadOR MK2 team from the High School for Computing in Belgrade also have positive impressions. ’’We enjoyed the creative process of app designing, as well as addressing any emerging technical issues. Our team grew very close during the work on the app and it is brilliant that Telekom Srbija provided us with such an opportunity“, remarked Ana Savić, Filip Srećković and Andrej Skupek.
The members of the team Tower Power from the grammar school Boljai in Senta admit they have spent a lot of time working on the app and preparing for the presentation, but every moment spent and the effort made were well worth it. “The jury’s advice during the presentation will be very useful in our future work and we are privileged to have seen the apps of other participants. We are highly motivated and look forward to the next mts app competition”, said Janoš Horvat, Mark Bujdošo and Robert Nađ.
Miljan Mitrović, Stevan Ranđelović and Mihajlo Petković, from the Cipiripi team and grammar school Bora Stanković in Niš, say that the chance to demonstrate their skills, acquire new know-hows required for the creation of apps and to improve their team work is something that makes the mts app competition unique.
Such impressions about the mts app competition are also shared by their friends from the same school, Nada Ristić, Milan Stojanović and Miloš Petrović, from the MNM team, who stress that the competition has provided them, apart from the team work, with an outstanding experience and an insight about the importance of social and communication aspects in app development.
mts app competition has been included in the selection of a prestigious European organization CSR Europe, where 202 teams have presented as many as 209 apps thus far, and the importance of the competition has been also recognized by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development.
Descriptions of top five apps at the 12th mts app competition:
1. Tower Defense Game, (Grammar School Boljai, Senta, Tower Power team) is an interesting game designed for all ages. The game is set in the time of the ancient Egypt, boasting an authentic design of heroes and weapons, enabling progress through several difficulty levels and strategic planning of next moves. The app is great for family fun, but also for learning about this period of world history.
2. Dođi na red / Queue up (Grammar School Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj, Novi Sad, Macrohard team) enables the users to queue virtually, from their homes. Irrespective of where the app user is located, the app provides him with an option to find the desired institution through a simple interface and to find out the tentative time of waiting, which helps reduce the crowd and saves time for users.
3. E-vent (Grammar School Bora Stanković, Niš, Cipiripi team)is an appdesigned for organizing events. All users can create events or join the organization of a proposed event. There are options for organising public and private events that require a generated access code.
4. N-Era (High School for Computing, Belgrade, SiadOR MK2 team) is aimed at education of children about the importance of vitamins in nutrition, which is achieved in a fun way, through a game.
5. Pawalk (Grammar School Bora Stanković, Niš, MNM team) is an app providing an option to connect pet owners with the persons who could take care of their pets. The app brings nice and useful together and enables the pet owners to find the right persons to take care of their pets when they cannot do it themselves.
