Mobile apps for the greater good: a socially relevant approach to software engineering

  • Authors:

  • Victor Paul Pauca;Richard T. Guy

  • Affiliations:

  • Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA;University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 43rd ACM technical symposium on Computer Science Education
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

Socially relevant computing has recently been proposed as a way to reinvigorate interest in computer science. By appealing to students' interest in helping others, socially relevant computing aims to give students life-changing experiential learning not typically achieved in the classroom, while providing software that benefits society at large. For the last two years, the Wake Forest University Computer Science Department has been using mobile device programming, agile methods, and real-world, socially relevant projects for teaching software engineering in a liberal arts Computer Science curricula. We report on the teaching methods, student experiences, and products delivered by this approach. In particular, one of these products, Verbal Victor, is now a commercial and social entrepreneurship success in the field of assistive technology for communication disabilities.