Students teach students

Sixteen guys have gathered for the course, app development for smartphones with Hampus Iggström and Shervin Shoravi from the Master of Science Programme in Information Technology. The idea came to the two students two years ago.

‘We thought it would be fun if we got started and tested a load things over a weekend. The programme gives us all the theory we need, but there is not enough time for practical exercises,’ says Hampus.

Shervin nods.

‘If you want to be good at app development you must be prepared to sit for eighty hours a month outside of the education. You need to realise that you will sit there for hundreds of hours, and get stuck over and over again, but still continue.’

The guys have picked up a lot of their knowledge from the net and Stanford’s filmed courses of lectures on app development. They learned more while working on the side for a company focused on scheduling. When several classmates began to ask them for help, Shervin and Hampus went to the IT section's board “primarily to exchange ideas about a possible app-course”.

Shortly thereafter a newsletter was sent out announcing the course would start. ‘We then thought “oh, now we have to do it,’ they laugh.

30 students turned up for the first course date. The fact that the guys are appreciated cannot be mistaken. One of the participants, Babak Toghiani-Rizi, developed the app “Cykelkompis” which then won the prize in the competition Idea Uppsala’s application category.

‘They have really sacrificed their free time and put in a lot of energy so that the rest of us get to learn,’ says Babak. `It's amazing with students who wish to share their knowledge rather than competing with others.´