AT&T Announces Winners for 2009 Big Mobile on Campus Challenge

National Contest Unveils Next-Generation Mobile Applications for Higher Education

Dallas, Texas.- AT&T* today announced the winners of its second annual Big Mobile On Campus Challenge, a national higher education contest for mobile application development. The contest illustrates the ability to take extremely innovative ideas and develop them into mobile applications.

Prizes will be awarded to the grand prize winners at the Higher Ed Board of Advisors meeting today, and the winners will demonstrate their winning application during the EduCause Annual Conference on November 3-5, 2009, in Denver, Colorado.

The grand-prize winner is a team of full-time students from Harvard University. Alex Bick, Joy Ding, Drew Robb, Cameron Spickert and Winston Yan won for their “Rover” platform. They will split a $10,000 scholarship, and each team member will receive a mobile device of choice and a trip to the EduCause Annual Conference in Denver. “Rover” connects students with each other, their school and community. The core of Rover is a guidebook, enhanced by location-awareness and social networking features to inform students of what is happening in their campus through local deals, events, news and transportation. “Rover” is unique in having a live feed of deals that connects local businesses with students, creating interactions that allow for greater integration of students into the local community and vice versa.

The runners-up are Michael Hanley, Jennifer Palilonis, Suzy Smith and Vinayak Tanksale, staff members from Ball State University, and Erica Simone, a full-time student from Northeastern University.

The Ball State team is recognized for their interactive news and advertising application that allows students to create and deliver news stories, videos, interactive graphics and advertisements on a breaking news or weekly basis. The team members will share $5,000 in cash and receive a mobile device of choice each.

Ms. Simone of Northeastern University is recognized for a comprehensive and personalized mobile application, “UpperClass”. This application connects students, faculty, alumni and parents to key systems while on the go as well as popular social networking systems, such as Facebook and Twitter, to provide an immersive experience. She will receive a $5,000 scholarship and a mobile device of choice.

“The quality of submissions to our Big Mobile on Campus Challenge this year was outstanding, and it is clear that real-time access to information is more important than ever before for higher education students and staff,” said Chris Hill, vice president, mobility product management, AT&T Business Solutions. “The goal of our Big Mobile on Campus Challenge is to encourage students and staff to participate in the mobile evolution, and be innovators, not just consumers, of mobile applications. The winners this year clearly demonstrated undeniable ingenuity with their next-generation mobile applications. Their ideas will enhance education, community vitality and information access. AT&T congratulates each of the winners of the contest.”

The Big Mobile On Campus Challenge for full-time college students and staff was established in 2008 to recognize innovative and creative mobile applications that enhance academic performance, build campus community and help to improve campus operations.