Mississippi State University senior, Terence Williams, released his iPhone app called Bully Walk in January. This app is very beneficial to those desiring to become more connected to MSU campus.
Bully Walk has multiple features, including a GPS route to every building on campus while giving estimation on how far away the destination is, either by driving or on foot, a real-time bus route locater and a parking lot finder. It also has links to all MSU social outlets and all athletic event schedules with an option to purchase tickets. It also includes the student myState portal for students to be able to log into their account in the app.
Williams said he also sends out weekly push notifications to alert users about campus events, games and updates.
Team Bully Walk consists of Williams and his graphic designer Jeffrey Daniel, a senior graphic design major. Daniel has worked with Williams since the summer and said he does whatever he can do to make the design of the app look the best.
“My hope for the future is to continue to help Terrence build his brand and be there to help him when he needs it towards his future,” Daniel said.
Daniel said he respected Williams passion for his app.
“I have learned that Terrence is very passionate about what he puts his mind to,” Daniel said. “He is always thinking of new ways not only to better the Bully Walk app, but to come up with apps that are more convenient to people in general.”
Williams said Team Bully Walk is currently working on two new features to change the way you experience campus that will be released in two weeks. These updates include an addition of a calendar tab including a schedule of events and important dates around campus and a new profile feature to help students keep up with their student information.
“When developing Bully Walk, my goal was to simply help students, and that continues to be the driving force behind every update released,” Williams said.
Williams said he started Bully Walk very simple and has expanded it ever since. He said he knew people got lost around campus constantly and wanted to help people avoid that problem, whether they were freshmen, parents or transfer students.
“It is user friendly, it is from a student’s perspective, so it is not something just thrown out by the university or by some big company,” Williams said. “As a student, I actually know what the students want and what they use.”
Williams said he has received a lot of positive feedback from users of Bully Walk. He appreciates the support he has received from the university, especially the College of Business, the College of Engineering and the Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach.
“It’s been an amazing journey here at MSU,” Williams said. “It’s a great learning environment and full of awesome resources for student.”
Bully Walk is Williams’ ninth app. He became interested in creating apps after taking a MSU freshman year experience class called iPhone Programing in the fall of 2011 taught by Rodney Pearson.
Pearson, professor of management and information systems, encourages students to explore the possibilities in creating apps.
“It is computer programming, so it is hard, but it can unleash the creativity that you have built up inside you,” Pearson said. “For someone like Terence, if he can dream something, he can create it.”
Williams said Bully Walk has been used nearly 75,000 times within its eight months of availability in the Apple App Store. It is currently ranked as the No. 1 campus app for MSU and made the “Popular Apps” list on Apple’s analytics. Bully Walk was selected in June by Apple to be included in their annual Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco.
Williams said he would love for local businesses to advertise in his app. He believes a relationship between his app and small businesses would profit both the businesses and student users. Williams would provide users with a direct link and route to their store, as well as their website and special offers they have.
“I see Bully Walk continuing to grow into a great asset for the university, and I’m humbled to be able to share this experience with my Bulldog family,” Willams said.
To contact Williams, email him at www.nobilitytech.com.
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App refreshes campus
Emmalyne Kwasny
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September 22, 2016
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