With the evolution of technology comes opportunity. With opportunity comes the chance to create, and in the case of technology, who knows where that opportunity could lead?

That opportunity could come knocking for students at The University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College as they team up to present the 5th annual Mobile App Contest sponsored by UNM’s Office of the Chief Information Officer.

"It's exciting to host the fifth annual Student App contest in conjunction with CNM, said Chief Information Officer Duane Arruti. "It's a wonderful opportunity for students to hone their technical and presentation skills, and as IT professionals, it's rewarding to see up-and-coming ideas in their innovations. I'm always impressed to see the apps that students produce."

Applications are currently being accepted for the contest that is designed to engage and inspire, and to provide students from both schools the opportunity to utilize their creative coding skills to produce an app that provides a notable service to the community and students, while providing a medium for motivated students to potentially commercialize any apps that are market worthy.

UNM and CNM faculty and staff will provide support to these coding efforts through workshops, assignment of mentors to applicants, and making development environments available in student labs. Interested participants also have the option of utilizing UNM’s and the City of Albuquerque’s Open Data repositories to make useful, mobile applications that also benefit the community.

The contest works like this:

Register to participate and receive updates.
Develop your idea, form a team, plan coding time, enlist testers, consult mentors.
Prepare for submission: Introduction document, source code, compiled binary or hosted web site, demo day presentation .
Submit final project by sharing a cloud based folder.
Demo your app, give your pitch.
Judges review.
Attend the awards ceremony.

Students from both schools are invited to participate in the contest that includes a top prize of $5,000 for first place; $2,500 for second place; $1,000 for third place. A variety of prizes will also be given away for Honorable Mention.

Applications are currently being accepted. The deadline for students to register and apply is Friday, Oct. 13. This is only the deadline to register, and not the final deadline for app completion. To be eligible, students must be currently enrolled at UNM or CNM or have been enrolled and successfully completed their coursework between Aug. 1 and Dec. 31, 2017.

Solo coders and teams are also invited to participate. The final deadline for those particular entries is Jan. 5, 2018. Demo Day is scheduled on Friday, Jan. 19, 2018. Participation in Demo Day is required for all applicants. The Awards Ceremony will be held immediately following in the UNM Student Union Building theater.

For more information or to register for the CNM/UNM competition, visit App Contest.