NYU Tandon Teams Advance to Semi-Finals in NYU Mobile App Contest
UPDATE April 12: Curtain Call is one of just four teams to advance to the final round of the NYU Mobile App Contest! Finalists will develop interactive prototypes and participate in a live pitch on May 2.
Two student teams from NYU Tandon School of Engineering advanced to the semi-final round of the 2016 NYU Mobile App Contest, "MISSION: APPOSSIBLE.” Curtain Call and Cinderessed were two of 43 mobile apps chosen from over 122 submissions to go onto the next round of the contest.
This year’s NYU Mobile App Contest kicked off on February 3 with coaching sessions and workshops to provide student developers with technical skills and assistance. Hosted by NYU Stern’s W. R. Berkley Innovation Lab, the competition aims to ease the process and financial burden of developing apps by allowing NYU entrepreneurs to collaborate with Messapps, a NYC-based app development firm. Stage 1 of the competition leads to a list of semi-finalists, who then attend workshops by Messapps and submit their wireframes for Stage 2. Finalists of this round then go on to Stage 3, where projects are open to public voting and winners have the opportunity to win over $10,000 in cash.
Curtain Call —developed by Quinn Robertson (Mechanical/Aerospace Engineering, Class of 2018) and Richard Vo (Computer Engineering, Class of 2019)— is an ioS app to facilitate last minute ticket sales by matching people looking for activities on a budget with ticket vendors selling discounted tickets. It allows customers to find tickets to events on the same day or to events they may not otherwise attend through the traditional method of buying tickets. “We believe that no matter the event or event holder, there should be a channel where discount tickets can be sold within the local area up to the last minute,” commented team member Robertson. The app will earn revenue by charging events for every ticket sold, as well as by charging ticket-selling customers a service fee.
“I had the idea for Curtain Call last year while attending concerts with over a hundred seats empty,” added Robertson. “Finding inexpensive concert/sports tickets in New York City can be quite a feat, so we want to create an app that is beneficial to users, venues, and artists alike.” The team is currently working on the app’s wireframe, which demonstrates how the app will run without logic flaws.
Cinderessed —developed by Amy Yin (Computer Engineering, Class of 2018) and An Shieh (Mechanical Engineering, Class of 2018)—is basically Tinder for apparel: a personalized website that acts as a shopping assistant to find clothing according to your preferences. It addresses the problem of high return rates due to misfit of clothing purchased online by acting like a virtual fitting room where customers can pick out the best outfit for themselves by comparing body dimensions to clothing dimensions provided by retailers. “The number one value customers want to derive from this solution as well as additional benefits include instant visualization of selected outfit, unlimited number of brands on one site, and assuring the perfect fit,” said the team.
The application provides consumers a low-cost interactive interface with a personalized profile and a free trial month, and will earn revenue by collaborating with retailers and advertising their latest trends, as well as by charging consumers one dollar a month after their free trial expires.
Lathika Chandra Mouli
New York University Shanghai
B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Class of 2017
