Langara students develop innovative health apps as capstone projects
Web and mobile app design and development students say they knew nothing about tech before this program and have now made fully functioning apps
By RICK GOODE
Faced with a looming drop in international student enrolment next term, Langara’s web and mobile design and development program believes the quality of its work will attract new students.
“Not just in education but in business and product development, if you’re putting out something of quality, people are seeing that difference,” said Tyler Higgs, an instructor with the program.
“It’s easy to get a little bit too fearful,” said Higgs. “But because the quality is there, we will still stay afloat.”
International student impact
The program is made up predominantly of international students. College statistics show that less than three per cent of enrolment was from domestic students from 2022-2024. But even with the recent cap on international student acceptances imposed by the federal government, the instructors remain optimistic about enrolment.
The web and mobile design and development program teaches students how to build mobile apps. This semester, the students are working on their capstone projects which are the final versions of those apps.
From novices to innovators
Student Izabela Nadu, who is in her final term, said she had “zero knowledge in tech or design” before she started the program.
Nadu came to Canada after having studied business management in Brazil. Despite having no previous experience, she and her team of classmates built a functioning mobile app.
The app, called SightUP, helps users stay on top of their eye health with vision tests, schedules for optimal times to visit the doctor and daily eye exercises. Nadu said her team had to study not only how to design the app itself but had to learn enough about eye health to make the app useful.
“We did very intensive research to understand what is the correct distance from the phone the user needs to be and how we can identify the correct degree the user has in each eye,” she said.
The market for mobile health apps was valued at US $32 billion in 2023, with projected growth to US $154 billion by 2034, according to Precedence Research. Many of the capstone projects align with this trend.
Kat Nervez, a student from the Philippines, and her team created an app called Glucofit, which helps diabetics and pre-diabetics track their blood sugar levels. The app connects to a Bluetooth blood monitor, categorizes sugar levels and gives feedback on lifestyle and eating habits.
“This program, it teaches me more about collaborating closely with developers, which is very important when you are looking for a job,” said Nervez.
Bridging design and development
That collaboration between students focusing on design and students concentrating on development is a cornerstone of the program with instructors pushing for teamwork between the core roles of app creation.
Higgs said that the diversity shown in the program reflects the current industry.
“Coming from the industry myself, you can see that divide [between designers and developers]. Here we can push them to communicate more and themselves being from so many different countries we can see that connection come together more naturally even,” Higgs said.