The ORPC Innovation Catalyst Seminar Series is hosted monthly during the academic year. The Series allows for the discussion of issues and case studies, led by experienced speakers, that are of common interest and relevant to technology innovation and commercialization. In February, ORPC hosted a lively discussion on Innovations in Mobile Apps.

Our speakers presented different experiences and driving forces behind their own app development activities to a packed house of faculty, staff, students, and budding app developers from around New Hampshire.   

The UNH mobile app development team recounted the arduous journey of developing, releasing, and promoting the new UNH Mobile App Suite for Android devices (expect the iOS version sometime this semester). The UNH Mobile App Suite features 18 modules within a customizable home screen enabling users to hide, show, and reorder icons to their preference.  The team described their experience building out the suite, which was a collaborative effort between the UNH IT and New & Emerging Media departments.  More information on the Mobile Application Suite can be found at: http://www.unh.edu/nem/mobile.html.      

Contrasting the experience of the UNH Team that built a suite within a large institution, Ryan Zarick, CEO and co-founder of Coder Den, spoke about his experiences leading a small software development company specializing in Android, iPhone and website development. Ryan spoke about the need to create apps with a client’s budget in mind and how that sometimes means forgoing features until the app has a larger user base. The audience, many new to app development, was made aware of the enormous amount of testing an app must undergo before being released for public consumption.  Both Ryan and the UNH team graciously made themselves available after the seminar to answer numerous questions from our audience during the networking portion of our event.

Our next Catalyst Seminar is “Innovations in…Life Sciences” on March 28 followed by “Innovations in…Lean Startups” on April 18.  Both seminars will be held at the Elliott Alumni Center - 1925 Room from 4-5PM with networking opportunities to immediately follow. Hope to see you there! More information about the Series, including videos of previous seminars, can be found at: http://www.unh.edu/research/innovation-catalyst-seminar-series.