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BlackBerry Academic Program NewsletterIssue 8

March 2013

A Message rom the BlackBerry Academic Program

January 30th, BlackBerry® hosted the much anticipated global launch or BlackBerry® 10.

Thorsten Heins, BlackBerry’s President and CEO o BlackBerry revealed two new smartphones

the BlackBerry® Z10 and the BlackBerry® Q10. “Today sees a re-invented BlackBerry launching

an entirely new mobile experience. We are thrilled to be introducing BlackBerry 10 on the new

BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones, to deliver a aster, smarter experience that

continuously adapts to your needs. Every eature, every gesture, and every detail in BlackBerry

10 is designed to keep you moving.”

Tell us what you think o the new BlackBerry 10 by email – we love to hear eedback.

To complement our BlackBerry 10 training material, there are now updated versions o theBlackBerry 10 SDKs available or download o the BlackBerry Developer site. The new SDK

updates ensures development runtimes have proper support or the physical keyboard and

screen size and to provide simulators so developers can start testing their applications on the

720×720 screen resolution.

BlackBerry Jam Europe

 Developers rom around Europe gathered at BlackBerry Jam Europe in Amsterdam

February 5th and 6th to learn more about the bold, new direction BlackBerry is heading with

the BlackBerry 10 platorm. This year, the BlackBerry Academic Program (BAP) team hosted

a session allowing academics rom across Europe, Middle East and Arica a chance to share

their experiences and best practices around teaching mobile app development. Presentersincluded Adam Chelowa rom Silesian University of Technology, Leon van Dyk rom the

University of Pretoria, and Iman Raslan rom the Information Technology Institute (ITI).

The session highlighted possibilities or academics and students to get more involved with

the BAP, including BlackBerry guest seminars, aculty summits and the campus evangelist

program.Email us or more inormation or ways to get your school more involved.

Thorsten Heins, BlackBerry’s

President and CEO o BlackBerry,

revealed two new smartphones,

the BlackBerry Z10 and the

BlackBerry Q10.

Alec Saunders, VP, Developer

Relations & Ecosystems

Development, welcomes

BlackBerry developers at

BlackBerry Jam Europe.

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Academic Highlights 1

Amos Gichamba (@AmosGichamba) is a lecturer or the Computer and Mobile Program at the

Africa Nazarene University, Nairobi, Kenya. He earned his BSc.Computer Science degree rom

Arica Nazarene University, a Master o Science in Inormation Technology degree (Inormation

Systems and Sotware Engineering options) rom Strathmore University; he is currently

pursuing his PhD in Computer Science at University o Nairobi.

In early 2012, lecturer Amos Gichamba joined the BlackBerry Academic Program (BAP)

with intention o expanding their Mobile Applications Development course oered at theArica Nazarene University. Mr Gichamba decided to integrate BAP’s Introducing BlackBerry

Application development content into his class. Through student-ocused labs and hands-

on exercises, Mr Gichamba imparted knowledge to build students’ interest in mobile app

development. The BlackBerry Academic Program had a chance to ask the computer science

instructor a ew questions.

In your opinion, what components make a good app?

A good app is the one that is easy to use or the target user that it does what it is meant to

do without ailure. It should include: consistent ow and User Interace, easy-to-understand

commands, a help eature, completion o tasks in three steps (at most) and useul eedback to

the user (or example, provide eedback when the user commits an error).

What advice would you give student developers?

Practice as much as possible and sel-learn at an early stage o your education because there

is so much more to learn than what your university instructors will ever have time to teach.

Why should student consider app development as a career?

The market or applications keeps growing due to the growth in mobile device penetration.

Applications are increasingly becoming the key reason why people purchase one device

over another.

Why should students consider developing or BlackBerry?

BlackBerry users, in developing countries, generally belong to a particular demographic that

can aord to purchase applications at a premium rate. Another reason is that the developmen

language or installable apps is Java (which is common programming language many Kenyan

students already know) and thereore they aren’t necessarily required to learn a new language

to develop or BlackBerry.

What do you see in the uture or developing apps?

The uture o apps development will be determined by both the device manuacturer

community and the apps developer community. Most people nowadays buy devices because

o their eatures, a large part o that being the apps available and the ones they can install.

App development will keep growing in popularity, especially now that device manuacturers

are encouraging development by oering ree training, app development competitions with

handsome rewards and nearly negligible costs o promoting apps through app stores.

Kenya is currently ull o activities around mobile platorm innovations, majorly mobileapplications. Inventions such as M-Pesa (editor: M-Pesa is a mobile money platorm) have

transormed the country’s M-Commerce space and several developments around this. A good

number o incubation centers are hosting mobile application developers and those centers can

connect developers to investors. Kenya has become known in Arica, and the rest o the world,

as the hub or mobile platorm inventions and this is likely to continue in the coming years.

Mr Gichamba mentors students

and is member o the Arica

Nazarene University Inormation

Technology club.

His area o research is Mobile

Computing or development.

http://amosgichamba.

wordpress.com

Note: On March 20, 2013,

a BlackBerry Jam Session will 

take place at Marble Arch Hotel 

in Nairobi, Kenya. Students are

welcome to register  here.

Come jam with us!

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BlackBerry Elite member,

Corran Blyth, at the top o

Mt Kilimanjaro.

Academic Highlights 2

Meet Corran Blyth: he is a student, BlackBerry Elite member and most recently mountain

climber. As a student studying IT at Tresham, Kettering Campus, Corran is busy balancing

developer lie with school lie. The BlackBerry Academic Program had a chance to catch

up with Corran who recently attended BlackBerry Jam Europe.

We heard you climbed Mt Kilimanjaro with several other developers!

How did you get involved with this!?

I received an email in December asking whether I was available or a week or two in January.When I said yes, I was given the invitation to climb Mt Kilimanjaro with some ellow BlackBerry

developers and some o the key people at BlackBerry that work with application developers.

Along the way, we were to develop an application or charity. (editor: more inormation about 

this will be posted BlackBerry Developer Blog  ). As you can imagine, this wasn’t an oer to

be reused! I went along and had an overall great time. All o the people were brilliant, rom

developers to guides and porters. We made the summit with diculty but had lots o un along

the way. It was an opportunity o a lietime.

How long have you been developing?

I have been developing since I was 14. I began with Visual C# or Windows computers.

I stopped developing until last year, when I was turning 16. I started again with

BlackBerry development.

What was your frst app/project?

My frst Windows project was helping out with programming an anti-cheat system or an old

game named Delta Force: Black Hawk Down. I was part o a group named EvoSot Anticheat

and I picked up a lot o what I learned about programming rom their lead developer.

What programming language do you preer to work in and why?

I previously liked to work with a combination o HTML/CSS/Javascript because o both ease

and portability. HTML5, with only minor tweaks can become a good cross-platorm application

Recently, I took some time to begin learning BlackBerry Cascades development using mainly

QML and Javascript with some C++. This has many benefts over HTML5 - such as built-in core

UI components (including buttons, lists, animations and much more.), better perormance and

a more proessional output.

What aspect o developing apps do you most enjoy?

I enjoy the eeling o accomplishment when the app is complete. There’s nothing that eels

better than looking at the fnished product and being proud o your work.

How do you balance school and work?

I struggle to balance school and work, but I manage. I do my best to get all my school work

done in school during my lunch periods and lessons so as to avoid the two clashing.

Do you plan to turn development into a ull time career once you complete your schooling?

Defnitely, I love developing and think I would fnd it a rewarding ull time career.

What components make a good app?

The user experience is crucial. This consists o animations, navigation, user interace amongst

other things. Cascades development almost guarantees this by providing beautiul core UI

components to developers. These oer a look and eel that fts the overall phone UI with

great perormance.

New academic spotlights

now available

Learn more on what proessors

rom India and Hungary are

doing with the BlackBerry

Academic Program.

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Get Involved

Save the date: Ontario University Institute o Technology (OUIT) to host a Faculty Summit

Academics interested in the uture o mobile computing are invited to join ellow academics

or a two-day aculty summit hosted by OUIT, Oshawa, Canada, May 29th and 30th, 2013.

Join us or presentations, panel discussions, demos and a ull-day, hands-on developer

workshop. Interested in learning more? Visit the website or the most up-to-date details.

BlackBerry Tech Centre open in Federal University o Alagoas, Brazil

Showing commitment to the developer community in Brazil, BlackBerry has opened up one

o a network global BlackBerry Tech Centers at the Federal University o Alagoas, Maceio.

In eort to nurture the growing developer community, local students and developers will have

access to training and resources to create and test mobile apps.

Winners announced or the OpenClass student app contest

Saurabh Jain, Founder o the OpenClass, and BlackBerry Developer Group leader in New

Delhi, India, announced the winners o a student app contest held late last year. Eight teams

participated and submitted 11 apps. The winning team, students rom the Birla Institute of

Technology, Noida, each won a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet or their app called ‘Drums n’

Piano’. These same students continue to develop apps under Mr Jain’s guidance at the

local incubator he initiated. I you are a student that is located in the New Delhi area andinterested in learning more about the app incubator, you can email Saurabh Jain directly

or more inormation.

Planning to attend the BlackBerry Live developer conerence?

Did you know BAP is oering ree complimentary passes or students and academics to attend

the BlackBerry Jam Americas in Orlando, Florida? Email BAP with valid student/academic ID

today! Note: passes are available on a frst come, frst served basis to students currently enrolled

in accredited universities and colleges.

Did You Know?

At the BlackBerry 10 launch, Thorsten Heins announced a change: Research In Motion (RIM)

will now operate under BlackBerry. “This change rom Research In Motion to BlackBerry

comes at a defning moment in our company’s history,” said Thorsten Heins. “RIM created the

frst BlackBerry smartphone and changed the way millions o people around the world stay

connected. We have used that same ingenuity and innovation to redefne mobile computing

with BlackBerry 10. As we launch BlackBerry 10 around the world, now is the right time to

adopt the iconic BlackBerry name.”

The inaugural tech center

opening. From let to right:

Leandro Melo de Sales,

Proessor and Principal at the

BlackBerry Tech Center;

Eduardo Setton, Secretary o

Science and Technology o

Alagoas; Eurico Lobo, Principal

at Federal University o Alagoas;

Demian Borba, BlackBerry

Developer Evangelist; Leticia S.Lewis, BlackBerry, Director,

Government Relations Brazil

Some students at the London

Metropolitan University were

the latest audience to receive

a BlackBerry 10 seminar hostedby BlackBerry Developer

Evangelists. Want a BlackBerry

Developer Evangelist visit on

your campus? Email BAP or

more inormation.

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