Press

Tulsa Tech’s Mobile App Development Program provides an opportunity for students to create and test mobile applications utilizing industry standard software. Applications are developed for mobile devices such as personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants, and mobile phones.

Mobile apps are often pre-installed on phones during manufacturing, or delivered as web applications to provide users with an “application-like” experience within the framework of a web browser. Software developers for these mobile programs must take into consideration an assortment of screen sizes, multiple hardware specifications, in addition to a variety of configurations due not only to the intense competition in the industry, but also in response to changes within each of the proprietary platforms.

The mobile app development industry has been steadily growing, in both revenues and jobs created, with a recent industry report estimating that mobile apps comprise over 60% of today’s global software development.

Gregory Price, currently a mobile app developer at LIBINY SOLUTIONS, is also a former Tulsa Tech student who chose to study in this unique career field based on his early interest in computer gaming.

“I chose the Mobile App Design Program because ultimately I would like to work in computer gaming design,” Price said. “Before I applied for the program I had done some coding using the Unreal Engine, along with some basic JavaScript, and I really became interested in that aspect of game and application development.”

A recent graduate of Charles Page High School in Sand Springs, Price believes that the amount of hands-on work included in the Digital App Program benefitted his preferred style of learning.

“What I enjoyed the most about the program was the amount of hands-on time we actually got to spend in the class, Price said. “As a student of course you have learn to learn the theory and the concepts in order to be able to do the work, but I’ve always been more of a hands-on style learner, and being able to have the project right there in front of me, working on it at the same time I was learning about the concepts, that really helped out a lot.”

According to the 20-year old gaming enthusiast and part-time “Smash Bros.” tournament participant, the program was very challenging, and also very rewarding, thanks to a good mix of both theory and lab curriculum.

“We would attempt to code projects based on the assignment,” Price said. “Then we would immediately run the code and test to see if the app performed correctly. This method certainly helped me to learn how to identify errors more quickly, and improve my overall ability to write code.”

A variety of software programming languages are utilized in the class, and help provide students with the necessary skills required to be successful in this dynamic career field.

“JavaScript, Swift, Python, and C# are some of the most common coding languages we use in app development,” Price said. “Some of these languages work on multiple devices while others are specific to a certain platform, like Apple, so depending on the project we may use different languages to develop a certain application for a project.”

According to Price the most challenging part of Tulsa Tech’s Mobile App Development Program, was none other than the dreaded SIGBRT ERROR.

“The most challenging part of the program was the definitely the SIGABRT error,” Price said. “It basically stands for ‘signal abort’ and occurs when an app crashes due to a fatal error, which obviously indicates a problem somewhere within the code. Unfortunately this type of error code does not provide a lot of diagnostic information to us as developers, so they can be very challenging to troubleshoot or debug.”

Price conquered each of these challenges and in turn garnered an internship, followed quickly by a full-time position, as an app developer at LIBINY SOLUTIONS, a Tulsa-based company formed to provide custom transportation logistics system, mobile apps and professional web-based services. LIBINY provides their customers with the ability to integrate clear, functional, and creative interfaces with technical, business solutions, in order to strategically help build their brand, and improve their organization’s global web presence.

Though still in his first year as a young app developer, Price strongly feels the training he received at Tulsa Tech helped prepare him for a successful career.

“The training I received at Tulsa Tech has definitely helped me,” Price said. “The program not only taught me how to code apps, but also a lot about the overall industry of app development and what career opportunities were available.”