To mark Australian Heritage Week a new app has been launched on the Gold Coast identifying historic sites of interest across the region.
The Gold Coast Heritage app isthe latest product from the “app factory”, a facility on Griffith’s Gold Coast campus in which ICT students put their skills to practical use creating apps for internal and external stakeholders.
The “app factory” is led by Dr Jolon Faichney.
An earlier project was Access GC; an app which shows where services are located on the Gold Coast for people with disabilities. It was developed in consultation with Regional Development Australia Gold Coast and the Gold Coast City Council.
“The first stage of Access GC showed where disability car parking spaces were located,” Dr Faichney said.
“The second will include disability toilets and access ramps and there will be both Android and iPhone versions.
Dr Faichney said the university-based “app factory” provides students with vital experience in the lead up to a rewarding career once they graduate.
“The students get to take part in the whole process of app design and production. They talk to clients to establish the business requirements, as well as playing the role of designers, testers and marketers,” Dr Faichney said.
And this will stand them in good stead as careers in ICT are more and more in demand.
Head of the Griffith School of ICT, Professor Michael Blumenstein said that on a global scale ICT is more significant to the future of business and industry than ever before.
“A career in ICT can be very rewarding, but despite this there has been a drop off in the number of students going into this field in recent years in Australia,” Professor Blumenstein said.
“People still tend to think of the traditional professions, medicine or engineering except perhaps in China and certain parts of India where the opportunity to study ICT is in high demand.
“This makes sense because we are on the cusp of a new industrial revolution. IT is at the heart of innovation in every aspect of business and industry; it is changing how everything is being done to make it faster, cheaper and more efficient.
“In the past the focus was on making computers to go faster but we now have devices which can do the job adequately, and so the race is on to develop software.
“You can make a lot of money and you can really go places with IT. There is no doubt about that.”
The Gold Coast Heritage app can be found at;
Android:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.edu.griffith.gcheritage
iPhone:https://itunes.apple.com/app/gc-heritage/id853430034?ls=1&mt=8