At first glance, senior information technology major Colin Smith looks like an average student at Boise State.
With slightly shaggy hair, collegiate sweater and button up shirt, he blends in well with crowds
of his peers.
Smith is unique though. He is creating the technology of the future.
As a student programmer and employee for the Office of Information Technology, Smith spends his time writing programming code for Boise State mobile
software.
“I have been staff for about six months, prior to that, I was hired as an OIT student as well,” Smith said.
Long before enrolling at Boise State, Smith had an active interest in high
tech gadgets.
“I mean, I have always been into technology, I like having shiny cool things,” Smith said.
Smith studied programming as a teenager, but did not see a future in technology.
“It’s always been an interest and like in high school, I was in the IT academy and stuff like that, but I never thought it
would be something I would pursue,” Smith said.
On April 2, the my.BoiseState mobile application will be available for download and Smith is proud to be part of the four person team that created it.
“We decided not to launch it on April Fools Day, for whatever reason,”
Smith said.
The application will allow students easier access to Boise State online accounts through mobile devices with internet
capability.
Smith and colleagues used experience gained working for Boise State to win the recent weekend-long Appathon held in the Iteractive Learning Center.
With the array of electronic devices and operating systems available, Smith and teammates needed an app with
adaptability.
“It is really challenging to make something that will work across all of the devices, we chose a toolset that does that for us,” Smith said.
Instead of writing code for each individual operating system, Smith and peers used a program that eliminates the need to do so.
“It uses web technology, so since all of these devices know how to handle the internet, handle web pages and so forth, it is basically a web page that is designed to look like an app,” Smith said.
The app replaces expensive i>clicker devices in classrooms with a mobile app that can be used on smart phones and could potentially save students the cost of the clicker itself.
As the Appathon first place winner, the application has already grabbed the attention of Boise State officials.
“There has been some interest from some people that are pretty high up at Boise State that were there at the Appathon presentations,” Smith said.
“They saw it and really liked it, and have been asking my boss who orchestrated the Appathon, ‘when can we have it, when can we use it?’”
Though information technologies offers a wide variety of employment across the United States, Smith plans to stay at Boise State after graduating this spring.
“I am in a great spot right now, so I plan on, you know, staying here until I feel like I wanna leave,” Smith said.
“They take pretty good care of you as a university employee, so it’s honestly something I didn’t expect to happen to me before I had a diploma.”
