UB Student Team Among Winners of USM COVID App Challenge
July 10, 2020
Contact: Office of Government and Public Affairs
Phone: 410.837.5739
A team of four students from the University of Baltimore were announced as winners of the University System of Maryland's COVID App Challenge competition, led by the USM COVID Research & Innovation Task Force. Participating teams were challenged to develop a mobile application solution that could help bring Marylanders together to more effectively respond to COVID-19 and future pandemics. Six winning teams were selected, each earning a cash prize of $3,000.
UB's team, known as Team Breeze—Olubukola Akanbi, Charles Chase, Stephanie Parey and Michael Vandi—developed a COVID-19 Information and Tracker (CIAT) application that uses Bluetooth technology to track users' locations in order to limit the spread of COVID-19 and to give them important information and updates regarding their specific location.
"The app has a map feature that is useful for displaying cases of COVID-19 infection rates in all postal codes and cities in Maryland," said Akanbi, an Information and Interaction Design doctoral student at UB. "Having the right perspective on the infection rates per location can reduce fear and anxiety associated with COVID-19 and help those living in highly infected areas to be more cautious."
When asked why they wanted to participate in this effort to make an app related to COVID-19, all four team members agreed that they saw it as a way to contribute something useful to the fight against COVID-19.
"I had been wanting to do more to help communities cope with COVID-19 but within my specific field," said Parey, an Interaction Design and Information Architecture graduate student. "I jumped at this opportunity because I knew that we could create something extremely useful in these uncertain times."
The students collaborated remotely, and each team member had different responsibilities, including user experience research and design, data analysis, usability testing, design layout, interface design and programming.
"When I heard current contact tracing apps developed by huge tech companies sacrifice users' privacy by tracking our location, I knew there had to be a better way,” Vandi, a student in the Applied Information Technology undergraduate program, noted. "I joined the team because I wanted to show that contact tracing and protecting user's privacy can be done simultaneously."
The team was brought together by Giovanni Vincenti, associate professor in the Division of Science, Information Arts and Technologies.
"I forwarded the call for proposals from USM to all of the programs within our division, and four students responded," Prof. Vincenti said. "I introduced them to each other, and they did the rest."
The UB team had less than a month to develop and submit their concept. Entries were to include a 3-minute demonstration video that shows the app and how it functions, and a presentation that explains the app's usefulness. Judges, who included members of the USM community, tech corporations and local companies, and entrepreneurial advisors from across the USM, evaluated entries based on functionality and feasibility, innovation and impact. The UB team's competitive entry earned them one of six cash prizes.
"One of the reasons I joined the app challenge was that I saw an opportunity to use my skills to help people firsthand," said Chase, a Simulation and Game Design major. "I hope the CIAT app continues to support people during this critical time."
Download the CIAT app.
Read more about UB's winning COVID App Challenge team and Prof. Vincenti on the CAS Blog.
Learn more about the USM COVID App Challenge.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the College of Public Affairs, the Merrick School of Business, the UB School of Law and the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences.