Appathon 2021 Themes

The MIT App Inventor Appathon 2021 Organizing Committee has identified the following potential themes for this year’s projects. When submitting your app, you will need to identify your theme on the provided submission form. All valid participants/teams will receive a submission link before the end of the competition to submit their apps and the corresponding metadata. Now for the themes…

Theme 1: City of the Future

Create an app for a City of the Future that addresses a particular need of its citizens. You can envision how your app would benefit their lives in a utopian or dystopian future. Your city does not even have to be Earth-bound — it could be a Lunar or Martian colony or somewhere beyond. Imagine future citizens of this city with their own needs, goals, and dreams. In your write-up and video, give us a clear, concise description of your vision of the future.

Be specific with your app! City of the Future topics to consider: schools, libraries, or education; hospitals or healthcare; child/elderly care; grocery stores, restaurants, or food; malls or shopping; zoos or amusement parks, concert halls, cinemas, or entertainment; sports and recreation; roads and traffic; firehouses, police stations, or security; garbage collection or recycling; town hall or government.

Theme 2: Improving Academics

Where can teachers introduce coding into the classroom? Anywhere! Coding fits well in many academic subjects. For example, a foreign language department could ask students to build apps to translate between languages, a science department could ask students to build apps to recognize different types of plants, a social studies department could ask students to build apps to guide users through historical landmarks of their city.

Pick an academic field and develop an app for that field. The app can either help teach that field (a “Tour Guide” app, for example) or address a specific need in that field (a Translation app, for example). In your write-up and video, give us a clear, concise description of how your app would be used by an academic department.

Some academic fields to consider: Arts, Science, Math, Social Studies, History, Geography, Foreign Languages, Literature, Physical Education, and Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence.

Theme 3: Community Computational Action

How could your app make the world better? Identify a need in your community and create an app to address that need. For instance, Is there an app that could address water/air quality? Is there something that could help with the problem of food insecurity? Can your app help with demands in a post-Covid world? In your write-up and video, give us a clear, concise description of how your app addresses a community need.

Good luck and hAPPy building!