As the Auckland commute takes ever longer, a dedicated Unitec team have reached the final stages of a smart carpooling app. Already an award-winner due to its innovative design, the app is now being prepared for a trial study by Unitec staff and students.
Cris de Groot
This long-running project has been led by Cris de Groot, Senior Academic Leader Business and Innovation in Creative Industries. Initial concepts for the app were created by design students and further developed in cross-department collaborations with the School of Community Studies and Computing and Information Technology.
2020 Bachelor of Computing Systems graduates Ashley Yan, Joseph Jackson and Michael Manning share their experiences working on the project.
What were some project challenges?
Ashley: The project has been through numerous iterations. Previous student teams had a really strong idea and a design focus, we brought more of a functional view. Our team wanted this challenge as our Capstone Project so we could bring our differing abilities to it; Joseph and Michael specialising on development, while I focused on software testing and later project management. Dylan Hoggard, our fourth team member focused on networking. Now we know so much more about the platform, we can see a lot of early decisions could have been different. It’s the same with all creative projects but doubly true for programming as the technology changes so rapidly. When not much is known about features, you go in blind.
Michael: A lot of the challenges were of the technical kind, involving learning new coding languages and software. Working from home during lockdown was challenging as we didn’t have access to critical hardware for testing software. We had to work around others to share machines. I missed the face-to-face collaboration, but we kept in touch across social media.
From left to right : Ashley Yan, Michael Manning, Joseph Jackson
Joseph: Working by myself during lockdown, I learnt about self-motivation, creating and sticking to a schedule and avoiding burnout. Self-teaching involved figuring it out yourself or working out who to talk to. The lecturers gave us some good advice, for instance our group mentor Natalia Nehring recommended we use Xamarin to write the code which effectively halved our work. Xamarin is so new no one else online had the programme and there weren’t many forums. Talking to the lecturers helped more than flailing about on Google.
What are some highlights?
Ashley: After six months we achieved the app’s biggest features – the journey feature and the matchup function. It was really satisfying to meet those major milestones. Now we’re focusing on safety, cyber security and back-end functionality.
Joseph: The app builds on the previous student’s design work and layouts. Cris brought in a design team who made the app more intuitive. Everyone pulled their weight and the project has come out a lot better than I could have hoped. I’m really proud of it. It’s an app that works which is astounding!
Ashley: It’s been an amazing experience, learning to communicate with people from different disciplines. Everyone has different expectations, from design to sustainability and I want to fulfil them all where possible.
Michael: We weren’t given too much guidance from lecturers, which could be frustrating when you were stuck, but it has led to lots of self-learning. I’ve learnt about time management, managing burn out and staying motivated – also to not always choose something sweet as a stress reliever! It’s been a lovely time; my Unitec teammates and friends reminding me to take breaks and cheered on successes.
Joseph: I was already doing a lot of game coding in my spare time but this project has given me a big skills jump. I’ve learnt lots of neat tricks and not to spend so much time worrying about a small line of code – it can be fixed later. Knowing I can pick up a unfamiliar language and design and turn it into an app – that’s pretty cool! Working on the project has solidified my direction I’m going to do this as a job.
Read more about the project here:
Smart commuting with carpooling: February 2021
Unitec wins Auckland Transport ‘Match-Maker Award’ for carpooling app: November 2019
Sustainable transport: The latest on our cycling and carpooling initiatives: August 2018
Congratulations Cris and the now graduates 🙂
and well done Natalia!