A new app has been released to help students find their way around the university.

Jake Bock, a junior from St. Joseph studying computer science, created an application to help students navigate campus.

SIU Campus View is a Windows 8.1 application that shows users where buildings on campus are. The app is available for free on the Windows store.

“Basically, it takes in your current location and it will show where or what buildings are in front of you and where they’re located on the screen,” Bock said.

Bock said if a student holds down the tablet with the screen to his or her face, the application displays a map of the entire campus and pinpoints each building.

He will demonstrate the application for the first time from 10:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday at the Student Center Tech Store.

The presentation is a way to display the use of technology for potential students during the Chancellor’s and University Excellence Scholarship Interview Weekend.

In addition to Bock’s display, there will be three other students teaching the ins and outs of Windows 8 and Mobile Dawg, the university’s initiative to grow technologically by distributing Windows tablets to all freshmen. Presentations will be held once every hour.

“The tablet will be hooked up to a big monitor that everybody can walk by and see,” Bock said. “I’ll be talking about it and taking questions, as well.”

Bock started working on the application in August, and it was released on the market about two weeks ago.

“When Mobile Dawg was being thought up in August and kind of implemented, we had a list of side applications,” he said. “It was initially called ‘What’s In Front Of Me.’”

Bock wrote the code for the application in a language called C-Sharp and used the Windows 8.1 application-programming interface. He said creating an app requires a well thought out idea, and good design principles.

“If you have an app, you can have a really bad application and still design it perfectly and it will get no downloads,” he said. “It’s all about the initial idea and then, after that, it’s just designing and implementing.”

Bock said the application only runs on the university tablets but hopes to make it available for Android. The app is available for anyone to download but only provides maps for the Carbondale campus.

Olinda Hubbs, education coordinator of enterprise applications, said information technology is excited about Campus View, and it is one of several applications created by students.

“Jake, the developer of Campus View, is a great example of the caliber of the students that we have here,” she said.

Hubbs said other colleges compliment the university’s available interactive experience for students.

“They continually praise SIU and SIU Carbondale for our efforts to embrace the technology that is coming out and (for providing) learning opportunities for these young, talented developers,” she said.

Bock encourages everyone to download the app and come to the presentation on Saturday for further questions.

Luke Nozicka can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter at @LukeNozicka, or 536-3311 ext. 268.