Coding is an increasingly essential skill in the 21st century, and the extra-curricular scene at NASH has taken notice.  Among an abundance of new clubs this year is the App Development Club, sponsored by Mrs. Volpe and run by Arnav Dandu, Alexander Wu, and Oliver Bryan.

For Dandu, the motivation behind the club was to do something different from the Computer Science Club, which has been in existence at NASH for several years.

“I felt that there wasn’t really a club that specialized in actually developing useful applications, so I think the App Development Club club will fill that void and teach people practical computer science skills,” he said.

The club has held one meeting so far. Future sessions will be held on Tuesdays or Wednesdays after school.

Meetings involve checking up on projects, discussing any issues with the course, and learning how to incorporate special features. Members can expect to learn how to develop apps that work on mobile devices, the internet, and computers. The club aims to teach them general computer science concepts and help improve their skills.

So far, the club has exceeded the founders’ expectations in regard to the number of members it has attracted. There are currently 12 members, but more students are encouraged to join. Students can sign up at any point in the school year.

“However,” said Bryan, “we will not be reteaching old material if people join late. They would have to use previously recorded meetings to catch up.”

Students who are joining late can contact any of the three club officers for access to recorded meetings.

Free to join and available to both cyber and hybrid students, the club meets every week on Google Hangouts.  Interested students can fill out this Google Form.

Some of the concepts may be difficult to grasp at first, Dandu added. Therefore, familiarity with computer science concepts will be helpful in making the initial learning curve easier. However, while some background knowledge is helpful and recommended, it is not a requirement to join the club.

“We encourage anyone interested to join,” Wu said.

To develop apps, club members use a software development kit called Flutter, which is unique in that programmers only need to write the code for their apps once. After it’s written, the app can run on Android, iOS, and desktops.

The club officers have created this webapp as an example of what is possible when you create a website using Flutter.

“The hardest part of building the site was getting it to interact correctly with the delivery side website (currently still in progress), which displays all active requests,” Bryan said. “You can try it for yourself by filling out and submitting the donation form on easydonate.me and then reloading the delivery side page.”

One of the aspects of the club is themed, project-based competitions. The date of the first competition hasn’t been set yet, because it depends on how much progress is made with each lesson. The officers plan on splitting the club into sequences, and at the end of each sequence, members will be challenged to use what they’ve learned to develop their own app.  The reward for winning the competition has yet to be decided, but the club leaders say it will probably be a monetary prize.

“We think the friendly competition between club members will result in some great ideas,” Wu explained. “It’s always fun to see your ideas come to life, and members can definitely learn a thing or two from the people they are competing with or against.”