Full Name: Adam Fendley
Year: Freshman
Age: 18
Major: Computer Science
Minor: Leadership Studies
Hometown: Falls Church, VA
Adam Fendley is the creator of a brand new CNU app, DiningBuddy. This app not only displays the daily menus for both The Commons and Regatta’s, but also provides information regarding the amount of people within each dining hall.
Give me a brief description of DiningBuddy: “DiningBuddy is an app that uses the GPS on people’s phones to keep track of how crowded the dining halls are. It also has other aspects such as a message board on which you can share information with people so that you can have a social dining experience.”
How did you come up with the idea?: “I saw the lines leading up to Regatta’s that went all the way out to the Captain’s Locker, and I thought it would be cool if you could figure out ahead of time how crowded the dining halls were. I did a little experimenting and found out that it was possible through GPS to narrow it down a lot, and then I went from there.”
How long did it take you to finish the app?: “About 3 months for the initial version, and, obviously, it’s still being worked on. With apps, I’m never really done, but we’re at a point now where it’s working. I’m always in the process of adding new features and stuff like that.”
Do you have any ideas for future updates to this app?: “Yeah, I actually just submitted an update two days ago which has a favorites system. It’s basically where you can enter in your favorite foods, and when they appear on the menu, you’ll get a notification. Hopefully, that will be approved shortly. I’m also working on including some more social aspects that I’m really looking forward to, so that should be interesting to work on in the future.”
What do you do with your time besides creating apps?: “I’m usually in class or hanging out, talking to people in my hall. I also skate and play hockey. That’s about it. Oh, and I bake… a lot.”
Do you have any more app projects in mind for CNU?: “More than I can count! *laughs* No, I mean I always get kind of small ideas, and I kind of work through it in my head and try to figure out if it would be possible. It usually ends up not being possible, so I scrap those ideas. There are some that are lingering, though, that I think would be cool to do. I did something a while back where I added RateMyProfessor ratings to my friends’ CNU class registration pages, and that was just a day project. That was just one of those things where I decided to procrastinate and do that instead of homework. I’m doing small things like that for now. A lot of my ideas are for the current app, right now. The way I see it, no need to create a new app. I’m just kind of developing the one I’ve got because I’ve been working on it for a long time.”
Adam’s app, DiningBuddy, is available for free download in the App Store and Android Market.