To encourage students to step to further into the digital age, Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration is holding its first-ever hospitality app competition this year, SHA administrators said Tuesday.
Approximately 20 students and professors attended an information session Tuesday in the Sopher Auditorium. Dean Arun Upneja said the idea behind this semester-long competition was born out of the lack of technology in the hospitality industry.
“The hospitality industry is notorious for being very slow in terms of adapting new technology,” he said after the info session. “This is just one of [many] other projects that we’re doing to get students’ [interests] so they’re very savvy about what [the hospitality industry’s] needs.”
The college is also working on the idea of using robotics, such as robotic vacuum cleaners and concierge, in hospitality, Upneja said.
During this competition, which is only open to SHA students, participants will work in teams of up to four people to develop their apps, Upneja said. The competitors will use Thunkable, an app-building platform that doesn’t require any prior programming experience, he said.
“We didn’t want to let the programming come in the way, so that’s why we searched and found this platform that allows them to do the thing they want to do, which is create the app,” Upneja said.
The main focus of this competition is to encourage students to develop their ideas for the app, Upneja said. Students will receive a 90-minute tutorial to learn how to use Thunkable and attend a few educational sessions along the way, and then they will have two to three weeks to brainstorm an idea and make it come true.
Tarik Dogru, a SHA professor, said that he is involved in the competition because he has always been interested in developing an app, and this competition will help students get ahead of the industry’s curve.
“At other schools where I worked, we didn’t have such initiatives,” Dogru said. “This is a good project that’s really up-to-date. Apps are [in] our daily life today, so I just wanted to participate, and see if students show interest or not. And they did.”
Participants will display their ideas and designs for their apps on Oct. 18, and working professionals in the hospitality industry will give them some feedback, Upneja said.
Experts in the industry will come together and vote for their favorite app, and the competitors will demonstrate their product on Nov. 15, Upneja said.
Leonie Grundler, a SHA junior, said she has a few ideas about her app, and she is looking forward to showcasing her final product.
“I had talked to the dean about it, and he seemed pretty excited about it,” Grundler said. “I have a bunch of ideas of potential app [ideas] … it’s cool that SHA students will be able to create apps that could help out the hospitality industry.”
Alexandra Chan, a freshman in SHA, said she is excited to tie the technology in with the traditional hospitality industry.
“I got an email, it said something about hospitality and apps,” Chan said. “I’m really into technology, and I thought that it would be a really nice experience to come here and learn a little bit more about it. I do have a lot of ideas regarding hospitality and technology, and how they could be linked together.”
