Youngsters these days spend a lot of time scrolling through mobile apps. What if they could not just use the apps but also design them? On Sunday, a three-day workshop for children of classes 9, 10 and 11 on developing Android apps concluded in the city.
It was organised by the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum (VITM) in collaboration with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Bengaluru section. “The course has been a big hit since we started it four years ago,” said A. Sadhana, curator, VITM.
The students were taught how to build apps for Android on the ‘MIT App Inventor’, a tool that enables people with no knowledge in coding to develop apps by using drag-and-drop building blocks. The 22 students who signed up were all developing apps for the first time.
Nikhil U., Charan Reddy, Hritik Dutta and Bhrigu Naidu are a group of best friends and keen enthusiasts of Arduino (an open-source microcontroller ). “We were classmates till class 10 and got separated when we went to different colleges in I PU, but a passion for electronics connects us,” said Mr. Nikhil. They have designed an app with which a user can control the functions on another phone.
Many of the apps developed at the workshop were socially relevant. For instance, among them was one to streamline blood donations. “When someone enters their blood group, the app will detect the location coordinates of the user and give information on potential donors close by,” said Nihal Jahagirdar, a young designer.
Another team developed an app with an emergency button which could read aloud what to do in case first aid needs to be administered. “Usually when there is an accident, you don’t know what to do immediately. This app will also send your location to the nearest ambulance,” said Ruchita Ravidranath.
Resource person N. Narendra, research scientist at TCS Research and Innovation, Bengaluru, said the students developed apps using databases and Bluetooth clients in a matter of three hours. “Some of the apps are good enough to win competitions,” he said.
The students plan to work on the apps they have designed to enter them in MIT’s monthly app development competition.
Celebrating museums
Museums tell stories — stories from the past and those that shaped the present. Prominent museums in Bengaluru, in association with the Department of Tourism and the Department of Kannada and Culture, will celebrate International Museum Day on May 18 by launching a public campaign with the theme ‘Once Upon a Time’.
The campaign will bring out interesting stories from the city’s museums. It will also encourage people to share their experiences on social media using the hashtag #MyMuseumStory.
Activities such as treasure hunts, museum walks, talks, workshops and film screenings will be organised at various museums, including Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum, Government Museum, HAL Heritage Centre and Aerospace Museum, and Karnataka Chitrakala Parishatha Tourism Department release said.
