Zoya Khan, a Wichita State University College of Engineering graduate student in computer networking, contributed the idea behind an app that won the People's Choice Award at the Google Hackathon 2014, held Oct. 24-25 at the national convention of the Society of Women Engineers, in Los Angeles.

Khan is working with Murtuza Jadliwala, an assistant professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, on her master’s thesis on privacy in smart grid communications. Kahn received her undergraduate degree in electronics and telecommunications from Pune University in India.

She was one of only 75 participants selected by the Google team. Participants were given a chance to mingle before assembling into teams. Khan joined a team that included women from the University of Southern California, San Francisco State University and the Community College for Philadelphia.

“We decided to form a team because we all had different skills that could contribute towards making a good app,” Khan said.

It was Kahn’s team that produced an app that was voted the favorite project by Hackathon participants, Google engineers and attending staff. The participants were challenged to spend 18 hours working as a group on idea generation, prototyping and coding, during which time they were challenged to develop an idea into a workable app.

Real-life application

Khan’s team decided to build an Android app called Roommate Board, using Java and Android Studio. The app is designed to help college students collaborate with their roommates over tasks, finances and groceries.

Khan said she was inspired by challenges she and her husband face as graduate students trying to divide household responsibilities such as grocery shopping.

“When we started doing groceries separately, many times we ended up getting multiple items or even items that we didn’t need. Hence, I wanted an app where we both put in what we think we need to buy and then the person who gets it marks it off,” she explained.

“I told my teammates about this idea, and they agreed that they had similar issues with their roommates. They added that with roommates collaborating on chores and finances also becomes an issue.”

The team designed the app to allow each roommate to be assigned tasks or financial obligations that they can mark off when done.

“This ensures everyone is contributing,” Kahn said.

She said her teammates plan to continue working on their app and release it for free for college students to use.

Khan said the best part of the experience – her first time working in a professional setting under a severe time constraint – was working alongside Google engineers on-site at Google’s LA offices.

“They were very helpful and friendly,” she said. “I was also inspired by the drive all the engineers had to help us solve problems we faced during the app development process.”

The Google Hackathon was held in conjunction with the national conference of the Society of Women Engineers.