Raikes students win $58,000 in app-building competition

Winning an app-building competition falls somewhere between getting an "A" on a test and winning "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" on the excitement spectrum, according to junior computer science major Chris Johnson.

Johnson is one of five juniors in the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management to build a three-part app that won $58,000 for them and $10,000 for the Raikes School in the TradeKing API Campus Challenge.

Johnson and his five teammates, Derek Guenther, a computer science major; Clay Upton, a computer science, physics and math major; Alec Johnston, a computer science major; and Neema Bahramzad, a computer engineering major, make up team "Stock Bros," which competed in a national competition that tested their knowledge of business and technology.

Their app, "Swift," includes a browser extension for Chrome that will scan for stock symbols and provide viewers with more information about the stocks they find. It also allows them to trade through their TradeKing accounts.

The second part of their application uses a cloud-based server to facilitate between the Chrome application, Android app and TradeKing.

According to Bahramzad, this aspect of the Stock Bros project is what made them stand out in the competition.

"It's one thing to have the app checking for things," he said. "It's another to have an app that notifies you (about your stocks)."

According to the Stock Bros, other competitors mainly worked on one aspect. Some created mobile apps, like the Stock Bros' own mobile Android app that allows users to read notifications and trade with TradeKing on a mobile device. Others created purely Web-based applications.

"We were trying to think of something that wasn't totally obvious that everyone would do," Guenther said.

Their decision paid off. TradeKing noted during the official announcement that the group's willingness to think outside the box set them apart from other competitors.

"Raikes School really prepared us for a competition like this," Bahramzad said.

His other team members echoed the sentiment, crediting the Raikes School with giving them real-world knowledge and experience to create a product like the one they made.

"It's definitely a world-class honors program," Johnson said. "By the time we got around to sitting down and programming it … we were definitely prepared."

Projects like the one submitted for the contest aren't unusual in the Raikes School. Professor David Keck, director of the Raikes School, heard about the competition from fellow professors at UNL.

"Interestingly enough, it was similar to a project we had done in the class last year," Keck said. "So it kind of addressed what I wanted to do with (this year's) class project anyway."

Students from UNL participated in a competition to see who would go on to the national competition, which eliminated many worthy competitors from the field, Johnson said.

"Some of this talent you find here you can't find in other places," Johnson said.

All five members of Stock Bros expressed their admiration for the other teams at UNL, saying they were lucky to be chosen to represent the school at the national competition.

In fact, TradeKing liked the work of one other group so much they gave them an honorable mention in the contest.

The group, WYSIWYG, included junior marketing major Jessah Hofker, senior computer engineering major Cody Jung and senior industrial engineering major Emily West. Their Windows 7 phone app won them the Chairman's Prize and $1,500.

The Stock Bros said although they were proud to win for themselves and the school, it was hard to believe it. Throughout the process they encountered many difficulties, especially when the due date for the project was approaching.

"There were lots of late nights," Bahramzad said.

But for them, all the effort was worth it in the end.

"You kind of ignore the frustration after winning it," he added.

Keck said while the prize money was considerable, the most important part was that the students learned during the process.

"Nobody here knew how big the prize money would be initially," he said. "I think the real value is (discovering how to) create a more engaging, challenging classroom experience."