For Students

Love technology? Here is a chance to put your passion to a purpose and win a scholarship along the way! The Maine App Challenge is an opportunity for Maine middle school and high school students who are 13 years of age and older to create a mobile application with a chance to win a scholarship and other valuable rewards. There are three scholarships available for the top mobile apps: $6,000 for first place, $3,000 for second place, and $1,000 for third place.

Other awards include:

  • $500 to the high school with the highest participation
  • A guaranteed internship interview at Tyler Technologies for the top 10 finalists

All submissions will remain the property of the challenge participant. Tyler Technologies hopes that by participating in the Maine App Challenge participants will be encouraged to further develop their skills and their submissions, and eventually bring those apps to market on their own.

Questions?

spacer module is 25px

Check out the video below to see all of the apps from last year's challenge!

spacer module is 25px

Let's Get Started!

We’ve made creating a mobile application easier! Check out training videos on App Lab and the MIT App Inventor 2 below – these two easy-to-use environments will help you in development.

Mobile apps generally fall into any combination of these three categories:

  • Informational — Provides levels of specific information in an intuitive and easy-to-use interface.
  • Utility — Provides a service to the user based on a real-world need or scope of needs.
  • Game — Entertains the user while providing some sort of competition.

Using App Lab

App Lab is a programming environment by Code.org that you can use to make mobile apps. It allows you to build applications using drag and drop code blocks or to code directly in JavaScript. Their website has instructional videos and sample applications. Get started with App Lab.

Using MIT App Inventor 2

MIT App Inventor 2 is a very useful tool that puts you on the express train to building your first mobile app. Its drag and drop interface that allows you to arrange elements such as screens, buttons, text and more. You can then control those elements using logical “blocks” rather than direct code syntax. MIT App Inventor 2 also comes with its own Android emulator, so you can test the app from your computer rather than loading it on a mobile device.

Tyler’s Tic-Tac-Toe Game

As a demonstration, Tyler developed a simple Tic-Tac-Toe game for the purpose of exploring and learning how to use MIT App Inventor 2.

To get started, download MIT App Inventor 2, the sample project, and watch the demonstration video to get started using the MIT App Inventor 2.

spacer module is 25px