SHS Application developers club goes big

Students rush out of their classrooms as the school bell rings, junior Sujay Khandekar pulls out his smartphone, checking the latest updates on Facebook.

In a world of constant mobile activity and entertainment, more and more people are incorportating smartphones in their lives despite the often steep price.

For Khandekar, bringing mobile development to the school was the first idea that came to his head during this summer.

“I’m very interested in application development and electronics in general. I know a lot of my friends were interested in this field as well. I decided to bring these bright minds together to create something spectacular,” Khandekar said.

The junior presented his club idea to the ASB during the first week of school and was approved shortly after.

The Application Developers Club is focused on bringing games and communication clients to the Android and iPhone Platform this year to further benefit the school.

The club has more than 40 participants who come to meetings weekly to share, discuss and plan out possible applications.

One project the club is working on is the Saratoga High Application, which had been discussed for weeks. It plans to function as a school planner, with social features, such as a “wall” where teachers can post their assignments and test dates.

Another functionality being discussed for this application is announcements streamed to the user’s phone automatically.

Another project discussed during meetings is a gridbased game in which a player uses different tools and gadgets to solve a problem at hand.

According to the club, the pricing of these applications has been frequently talked about during their meetings.

Club treasurer Johnny Chang said, “Application Developers’ Club is in the very early stages of development right now. While we don’t have a product out yet, we know for sure that whether an application will be ad-supported or paid, we will target the market inside Saratoga High School first.”

The newly founded club is also aiming to teach all of its members programming languages such as HTML and Java. Leading these weekly teaching sessions is senior Evan Ye, who has been an avid programmer since ninth grade.

“I want people to become more interested in programming. It’s not something a genius only could do,” Ye said.

The Club hopes to go far in the mobile development field, aiming to get two to three applications by mid December.

“I hope to see the club as a massive success in the years to come. With the number of innovators and bright minds we have at this school, we just have to put the work in,” Khandekar said.