Helpful Information

Here you will find helpful information that may help you during this contest. Check back regularly, as content will be updated throughout the contest.

Elaine Rising, Vendor Sponsorship
Kimberly Waseta, Logistics Coordinator

Submission Criteria

The Contest is for Mobile App development by students of UNM and CNM. The submission process will require sharing access to your code repository to the appcontest@unm.edu . Any language, framework or library set is fair to use. For example, using HTML5 and PhoneGap, a binary can be built for the platforms you choose. Same with AngularJS + account. Ionic, React Native, jQuery Mobile and many others. Also, non-programing content management systems such as MIT App Inventor/Kodular, nomenproject.org, or others are accepted as well. The only requirement is that the project can be accessed and run on a mobile device (phone/tablet) of your choosing.

Project Hosting

There are many different public hosting platforms for code repositories- GitHub and Bitbucket being the most popular. There is a list of public Git hosting sites at https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/GitHosting that provides a range of free and paid, public and private repositories, as well as other supported source code management systems. With access to the code repository, the judges will be able to evaluate your code for the technical requirements and quickly see your supporting libraries and coding style.

Open Data Sources

Using Open Data in the app will earn you 5 extra credit points!

Here are some examples of local and government open data sources you can use for your project.

Public Data Feeds/Sources

Data from other sources are acceptable as well. For example, news stations, Yelp! and other web sites may have feeds and event calendars that you can pull into your app. However, be careful with private APIs and data, the format may change without warning.

Demo Day, Presentations and Pitch Sessions

In addition to coding, we are interested promoting professionalism. There are many contests, hack-a-thons and start up pitch events that expose coders to opportunities for networking, investment and financial backing. By preparing a demo and pitch for your app, you have an opportunity to talk about your work and skills that went into building the app.

Minimum Viable Product and the Short Development Cycle

When starting a coding project for a short cycle (for a class project, contest or working prototype) it may be best to use a "Minimum Viable Product" approach. Minimum Viable Product is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future development (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product).