Second Annual AOIT App Development Challenge

On Thursday, December 17, Progress will host the Second Annual AOIT App Development Challenge in its Morrisville, NC office.

The Challenge

With our market leading application development and deployment platforms, Progress has a vested interest in fostering future software developers. To drive this initiative, Progress developed a challenge based on two of its open-source programs, and has partnered with SAS, who will provide laptops for the students to use.

The day-long challenge will be broken into three portions: instruction, development and judging. Approximately 40 AOIT seniors will use two application development platforms (Progress® Pacific™ Platform and Progress® Rollbase®) and two programming languages (JavaScript, and Node.js) to create and program an original application.

These Students are our Future

Mark Troester, VP of Product & Solutions Marketing at Progress said, "Progress is proud to host its second app-dev challenge. We believe it’s important to mentor young developers and get them excited about programming early on. The explosion of the mobile device market brings with it greater demand to build more applications that can accommodate the rapid growth in the volume, variety and velocity of data. With the National Academy Foundation and Apex High School’s AOIT program, students are getting a head-start in the industry by beginning to earn professional certifications by the end of the first semester of ninth grade. We are pleased to be part of nurturing the next-generation of developers.”  

John Evans, Director of AOIT, said “The Academy is constantly looking to engage its students with the business community to offer critical thinking experiences that expose them to the latest technology and simulate the workplace. We are grateful to have this opportunity to collaborate with Progress Software.”

Who is AOIT?

TheAcademy of Information Technology (AOIT) started at Apex High School in 2001, and is one of 15 Career Academies in the Wake County Public School System affiliated with the National Academy Foundation (NAF). While the NAF Academy model inspires students and teachers to greater success, the Academies are bridges between corporate America and local communities.

The NAF model works by bringing business people into public schools and introducing youth to the world of business. Through the Academies, educators and business people are partners for investing in and developing America's youth. In 2013, AOIT was the number one NAF Academy in the nation.

AOIT provides students with a rigorous academic curriculum, while exposing them to the varied career paths and opportunities available in the information technology industry. Students engage in a rigorous, project-based learning curriculum focused on providing transferable skills and exposure to the dynamic IT field.

Competition Details

The AOIT App Development Challenge will be held from 8:00 am – 2:30 pm at the Progress® DataDirect® office at 3005 Carrington Mill Blvd, Suite 400, Morrisville NC 27560. Approximately 40 students will compete for prizes and to publish their results to the app store. Follow the DataDirect handle on Twitter for live streaming with Periscope and photos!

About Us

Our team here at Progress commits every single day to creating a better future. We care about our community and are proud to invest in the lives of these students. We don’t just build software, services and solutions. We create momentum. We spur customer success. Click here for more information.