Mobile App Competition Showcases Student Talent

PROVO, Utah – Feb 26, 2015 – Brigham Young University students won a total of $15,800 in cash prizes at the Mobile App Competition hosted by the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.

“We want students to create and monetize their apps,” says CET academic director Stephen Liddle of the purpose of the competition. “This year’s business quality is among the best we’ve seen.”

Apps were evaluated by judges based on various subjective criteria including: quality of the user experience and interface design, quality of the implementation, quality of the business opportunity, and usefulness of the app.

VME Chat was the big winner of the day, walking away with $4,750. In addition, Stack Challenge was presented with $4,000, Countdown Social took home $3,500, Garden Guardian was awarded with $1,200, Pocket Game Developer received $1,000, and PumpPal won $800. Checkitapp and Appartment also won $400 and $150 respectively.

“I was really excited to see what young talent could come up with,” says judge Kevin Wunder, Moki Mobility marketing director. “I was impressed with the range of apps the students created.”

A favorite of the judges and the crowd, VME Chat took home the grand prize of $3,750 in addition to the $1,000 Audience Choice Award. Comparable to Snapchat, the app enables mobile users to share their thoughts and feelings through simple video clips from an online database of more than 2,000 videos shared by users.

Participating in the competition has proven valuable for VME Chat moving forward, says economics senior and VME Chat founder Jake Ferrin of Thousand Oaks, Calif.

“Through the competition, we were looking to network and get our name out there,” says Ferrin. “It was a great opportunity to learn how to better present our product.”

For more information on the winners and the Mobile App Competition, visit mobileapp.byu.edu.

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, entrepreneurship, finance, information systems and public management. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.