Students from Patrick Gage Kelley’s Computer Science 591 course had an opportunity to show their mobile phone applications to members of the UNM and business community recently.

In order to complete the course each student had to build an application to demonstrate their creative and programming skills. The students gathered at the Epicenter building at Innovate ABQ to show the 57 applications they had created.

The apps run a gamut of interests. Adam Mitchell was happy to explain Top Summit, an app that allows you to geolocate when you climb one of Colorado's many 14,000 foot mountains. Another application allows you to share your favorite skating spots with friends. Another let you build checklists for activities such as shopping or traveling. Many students built games, and at least two students built an application that allows you to quickly find a favorite application on your phone.

Graduate student Laura Patrizi, who was also a teaching assistant in the class, built a sound tag application that allows you to tag parts of a recorded lecture so they can easily be found again. You may see that one on Google Play or in the iPhone apps store.

Dan Kestell's Snow Princess game app.

Some students, like Dan Kestell built their apps for a specific audience. His Snow Princess game allows the princess to collect enough snowflakes to build a snowman friend. He’s testing it with his four year old daughter.

Kelley said he was pleased with the number of students interested in learning how to build the applications. “This is a tremendous amount of work,” he said. “It’s good to see students who are still excited by what they are doing by the end of semester.”

At least two students built applications that allow a group to coordinate dinner plans or work out logistics for activities. And for those with an anxious cat, there’s an app that will play a variety of soothing bird videos to calm the nerves of animal and owner.

Don’t have time for all this? There’s an app that will allow you to verbalize your “to do” list into your phone. The app spells it out and you’ll have the satisfaction of erasing each item as you complete it by tapping your list.

If you are thinking of taking this course – put it near the bottom of your “to do” list. It isn’t offered again until next January.