New iShoe App Smashes through to Victory

Students in Ohio State’s College of Engineering have developed an app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch app to give Buckeye fans an in-depth, real-time look at the home football games.

The app, called iShoe, is available now for free download in the iTunes App Store. It was developed and is run by computer science and engineering students at Ohio State in cooperation with the Department of Athletics.

The App Store touts the iShoe features:

* Complete play-by-play coverage for every home game
* Accurate, full-color renderings for every drive
* Exclusive video replays for fans inside the ’Shoe during the game
* Real-time statistics for each team and the individual players
* Up-to-date team rosters, complete with pictures and biographies
* Schedules for current and previous season, including final scores and game times
* Drive-renderings, play-by-play and statistics for most previous home games of the 2009 season and 2010 season to date

Ohio State Athletics sends iShoe team members the same statistics feed provided to news outlets as well as the video feed from the scoreboard during the game.

At least two of the iShoe student developers sit in the Ohio Stadium press box during the games clipping the video of each play and associating it with each play as well as each player. The play video can be watched by all users of the app sitting in the stadium during game time. (Due to licensing agreements with ABC/ESPN and the Big Ten Network, video is not available outside of the stadium or after the game.)

Fans also can access iShoe features, except the video, on the app’s corresponding website.

The iShoe app was developed by undergraduates Christopher Dean (project lead), Alex Stevens and Adam Zink as well as Michael Rojas, who graduated this spring. Stevens is leading another team to develop the iShoe App for Android.

The project is conducted under the guidance of Associate Professor Rajiv Ramnath, director of Ohio State’s Collaborative for Enterprise Transformation and Innovation: Partnership for Performance (CETI) at the Institute for Sensing Systems. Ramnath’s goal is to match students with business and industry representatives to develop computer and mobile applications through collaborative, large-scale and long-term interdisciplinary projects. CETI also provides opportunities to involve undergraduates in research and application development.

“Leading the iShoe team has been an incredible experience,” Dean said. “I have learned things about computer science that couldn’t be taught in the usual curriculum and have gained a perspective that enhances my learning inside the classroom. Working with Dr. Rajiv Ramnath and having very skilled members working on the project made leading the team to success very easy.”

This season the game day operations for the website and the new app are performed under the supervision of doctoral student Thomas Lynch by students Dean, Stevens, Nicholas Rotonda and James Power, a computer and information science major.

Athletics takes care of all the marketing and licensing issues. James Walton, of the university’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, supplied the team with the necessary Apple licenses to develop on the iPhone.

Initially, iShoe was a website adapted under license from eStadium (developed at Purdue University) in a capstone course, with lecturer Igor Malkiman, by Di Cao, a graduate student, and undergraduates Timothy Nash, Michael Payne and Timothy Raptoulis. The group worked with Jim Null, director of information technology for Athletics, to develop the iShoe website.

The website was finalized during the summer of 2009 by a team led by Lynch and consisting of undergraduates Dean and Peter Dietz. During every home football game last season, Lynch, Dean and students Thomas Loh, an undergraduate, and Sheetal Ghadse, a graduate student, operated the site.

News Media Contact:
College of Engineering Communications: Joan Slattery Wall, (614) 292-4064, wall.107@osu.edu