Mobile Summer 4.0 – Apps for Timisoara

The annual mobile development workshop we are organizing took place between the 24th of June and 5th of July. During this time we organized 6 meetings where high school & university students learned to create mobile apps.

This year we changed a bit the frame of the workshop. Instead of implementing their own app ideas as in previous editions, the participants developed apps for 3 local NGOs so both the NGOs and the city locals would benefit and most important the students would participate in a real project building experience. The chosen apps for Timișoara were: Alergotura, Asociația Plai, FITT Timișoara.

Check out our cool t-shirts for this edition.

During the first meeting, our guests from the local NGOs came and talked about their initiatives and activities. The participants found out more details about the apps they were going to develop and about our workshop’s new frame, where we are focusing on collaboration instead of competition.

We prepared a template for the apps, on which they could rely and based on which they could build the apps. We presented the frame of Mobile Summer, how we organized the tasks in teams and roles. Every team was organized in 5 roles so we spoke about each role’s attributions and requirements.

Each person had to decide which team role would fit them better, after this, we had a toss up to organize the participants into 3 teams. The roles of each team were: tech, data, product, design and coordinator.

After the opening, we went through more details and specs about the apps and we explained what every team member has to focus on, depending on the role they chose. We finished with a presentation about React Native, the technology we chose this year for developing the apps. This allows us to publish beautiful native apps both on iOS and Android.

Starting from the second meeting, we began installing all the necessary tools to get started with the implementations. We held two more presentations, to introduce the most important concepts from Firebase and Git to the participants.

On the 3rd meeting, we started developing the apps both on iOS and Android, using React Native. The 4th and 5th meeting we also focused on the applications’ functionalities and design so that we could finish them until Wednesday when the participants had to present them.

During these meetings we also had some Skype calls with Simone Demelas, Simon Schweingruber and Wycliffe Sande. They shared their stories and interesting events which marked their careers. Thank you for your time!

Wednesday, we gathered at Ambasada, where the participants presented the 3 apps they worked on during the workshop. They talked about how they shared the tasks during this time and how they worked in teams. Also, they described the features they implemented and apps’ functionalities.

All the teams have reached their target and completed their tasks. We will make some small improvements and implement a few features to prepare the apps for publishing.

We would like to thank Alergotura, FITT Timișoara and Asociația Plai for their involvement and collaboration during this time.

And also, we would like to thank our partners, Tucano Coffee and Luxfood Sandwiches, for sharing their yummy products with us!