Project Ideas
Your team has free choice to develop any app idea you wish (providing it meets the Project Requirements), but here are some suggestions to get the creative juices flowing.
RetroTech Repair & Wiki
This project addresses the idea of a "garbage tracking/repair old hardware" app. It focuses on a Database to serve as a digital wiki of repair manuals and a catalog of components. Students will implement an API Integration to allow users to search a library of schematics or part numbers from an external source. The app will also use the device's Camera to scan barcodes or QR codes on hardware to quickly identify models and pull up relevant documentation. The team must create a complex Multi-Activity Design that allows users to browse, search, and contribute to the wiki, as well as manage their own personal collection of repair guides.
The IoT Bazaar Manager
This is a project designed to streamline the management of electronic components for the IoT class by focusing on an exceptional user experience. The app’s core function revolves around using the device camera for QR code scanning to quickly check items in and out. This simple, intuitive workflow is the most critical aspect of the app, ensuring that students can easily log their transactions without a cumbersome process.
A key UX requirement is a transparent and clean interface. The app will use a backend database to maintain a real-time inventory and, more importantly, to provide each student with a clear view of exactly what they have borrowed. Given that the goal is to streamline, not secure, the system, the user authentication can be kept simple—students could log in with a pre-registered ID or their name. The emphasis is on making it easy for students to know what they are responsible for, which encourages accountability and helps to keep the lab organized. The app's design will prioritize clear visual feedback and a straightforward, "scan-first" workflow to create a positive and efficient experience.
A potential improvement (this could even potentially justify a split into two projects) for a more demanding version of the app would be to create a centralized documentation feature. The app's database could be extended to include links to online manuals, programming examples, or wiring diagrams for different components. This could be added by an administrator or, as a fun extension, allow students themselves to contribute and edit this information, creating a collaborative knowledge base. This feature would not only streamline inventory but also become a valuable learning resource, making the project even more impactful.
Pervasive Game: Geo-Quest
This is a geocaching-style game that uses Location-Based Services to place virtual items ("quests") on a map for players to find. When a player is within a specific proximity, a Notification is triggered, and a Voice Control feature lets the player speak a secret password or command to "claim" the quest. The app will feature a User Login and Profiling system to track player progress on a global leaderboard, which requires a back-end database. Students must also design and implement a unique UI/UX with custom animations and a map overlay that visually indicates quest locations.
Interactive Art Canvas
This project is an app for creating and sharing interactive digital art. The core is an advanced UI/UX that supports multi-touch gestures like pinching and rotating to manipulate shapes and colors. Students would also use Device Sensors like the accelerometer and gyroscope to allow users to create effects by moving or tilting the device. All artwork would be saved to a local Database, and the team could implement a User Login and Profiling system to create a community where users can share and comment on each other's creations.
The (Pet) Sticker Factory
This app allows users to create custom, cartoonized stickers of their pets or any other object from photos. The core of the project is a two-step process: digital enhancement and physical product creation.
The app's main feature is the image-processing capability. Students will use on-device AI/ML libraries, such as Android MLKit, to apply various cartoonization filters or other stylistic enhancements to user-uploaded photos. The app's UI/UX will be focused on a simple editing workflow, allowing users to easily select a photo, apply a filter, and preview the final product.
The second part of the project involves the monetization and distribution model. Once a user is happy with their creation, they can choose to have a physical vinyl sticker of the image made for a fee. This requires implementing a Micro-payment feature. The final product, a "physical representation to show these off in RL," serves as the culmination of the app's functionality, bridging the digital creation with a real-world product. The app would need to include a simple User Login and Profiling system to save past creations and manage orders.
Termux External Display Console - Ubergeek Alarm!
Most Android apps only mirror the phone screen when connected to an external display. In this project, you will explore Android’s Presentation API to create a dual-screen setup: the console view (based on Termux’s terminal component) renders fullscreen on an external monitor (via DisplayLink/HDMI), while the phone itself remains free to act as a keyboard/touchpad controller.
The goal is a minimal but working prototype: plug in your phone, get a clean Linux terminal session on the monitor, and use the phone as input. Stretch goals could include font scaling for large monitors, gesture-based mouse control, or integration as a Termux add-on.
This project touches Android APIs most developers never use (external displays, custom rendering), requires thoughtful UI/UX design for dual-device interaction, and produces a geeky, demo-friendly result that could even be upstreamed into the open-source Termux ecosystem.
StudySync: A Collaborative Learning Platform
StudySync is a comprehensive app designed to help students connect and collaborate. It uses a User Login and Profiling system to create personalized dashboards for each student. The app's core features are an Event and Activity Hub, a Group Finder, and a Real-time Campus Chat. The Event and Activity Hub is a centralized calendar that pulls information from the university's public API (API Integration) and allows clubs and organizations to post their own events. It would also use Location-Based Services to send push notifications to students when they are near a scheduled event, acting as a convenient reminder. The Group Finder is a dedicated section where students can create or join study groups for specific courses, with each group having a short description, meeting time, and a simple chat feature for coordination. The Real-time Campus Chat is a built-in forum feature that provides a space for students to ask questions, share resources, and discuss topics related to their classes. The app will require a robust Multi-Activity Design to manage the different sections and a back-end database to store user profiles and group data.
Mindful Moments: Mood & Habit Companion
Mindful Moments is a personal companion designed to help users build positive habits and understand their emotional patterns. The app's main functionalities include Daily Mood Logging, Habit Tracking, and Notifications and Reminders. For Daily Mood Logging, users can log their feelings using simple emojis or a short note. The app then visualizes this data on a weekly or monthly chart, revealing trends and helping users become more self-aware. This involves simple data storage and visualization. For Habit Tracking, users can create custom habits (e.g., "meditate for 10 minutes," "read 20 pages"). The app allows users to check off habits as they complete them, building a visual "streak" and showing progress over time. This functionality is great for practicing list management and data tracking. For Notifications and Reminders, users can set reminders to log their mood or complete a habit, utilizing the Notification feature to encourage consistent engagement. This project focuses on a clean and user-friendly UI/UX, making it an excellent opportunity to practice essential design principles. The data can be stored locally using a database.
The Tome Exchange: A Campus Book Marketplace
The Tome Exchange helps students save money and reduce waste by providing a centralized platform to buy, sell, or exchange textbooks and other reading materials. Core features of the app are a Dynamic Book Catalog, In-App Communication, and Integrated Features. The Dynamic Book Catalog allows users to list books they own for sale or exchange. The app will feature robust search filters, allowing students to browse by subject, title, author, or course code. The In-App Communication is a simple chat feature that will enable users to contact the book's owner to arrange a meeting or exchange. For a more advanced version, the app could include a QR code check-in system for confirming exchanges, or a user rating system for reliable buyers and sellers. It could also integrate with the university's course catalog (API Integration) to suggest relevant books for a student's enrolled classes. This project is a perfect blend of a practical utility app with social and e-commerce-like features, offering a lot of room for creativity in its Multi-Activity Design.
The Time Sync Assistant
This project is a dedicated mobile application designed to help photographers and journalists avoid a common and critical mistake: forgetting to update their camera's time zone when they travel. The app provides a smart, automated way to detect these changes and a clear, simple mechanism to ensure they are addressed.
The app will use Location-Based Services to automatically detect when a user has crossed into a new time zone. This is done by continuously monitoring the device's location in the background and comparing the current time zone to the last known time zone. Once a change is detected, the app will send a prominent notification to the user. This serves as the "smart mechanism" to enforce confirmation, requiring the user to tap on it to dismiss it or open the app to confirm they have updated their camera. The confirmation status would be saved to a local database to prevent repeat alerts for the same time zone.
The app’s design will focus on a simple and efficient UI/UX. The main screen could show the user’s current time zone and the time of their last successful camera sync. As an advanced feature or extension, the app could include a camera feature that allows users to scan a QR code or barcode on their camera equipment, pulling up a specific instruction manual from a pre-populated database for that camera model to show them exactly how to change the time zone. This ensures that the project not only streamlines a process but also becomes a valuable resource for the user.