Everything started over three years ago, when you could not buy the iPhone officially in Switzerland. At the time, the future ETH computer scientists Mathias Wellig, Fabian Aggeler and Marc Gschwend successfully bid for their first iPhone on eBay. They had to hack into the device in order to unlock it. The students used forums and blogs to find the information they needed. It wasn’t long before they were programming their first programs for the new Apple mobile phone. As Wellig says, «It has almost the same hardware as a computer». These programs, which are called apps, provide additional functions or content for the mobile phone. Often, the apps allow for existing content from the internet to be shown in a way that it can be best used on the small display of the iPhone. The three ‘DIY enthusiasts’ first became known amongst the student body for an app that made it possible to use ETH’s low-cost internet text message service with the iPhone. Wellig, Aggeler and Gschwend have now launched the official ETH Zurich app for the iPhone. In addition to the ETH Life Online function, the «ETH Zurich» app also includes a buildings search, the ETH events calendar as well as a function that calls up the menu plans for the ETH canteens and restaurants.

From a student project to an official application

Wellig explains that the three students taught themselves how to program for the iPhone platform. After the success of the text message app, they developed another application that proved extremely popular with the students, in the form of a function that accesses the menu plans for the numerous ETH canteens and restaurants. Wellig and his colleagues’ next plan was an app for the homepage of the Akademische Sportverband Zürich (Academic Sports Association Zurich, ASVZ). They got in touch with ETH’s IT Services (ITS) with some questions about technical details, and ITS then brought their attention to legal aspects in connection with the app they developed. The computer science students then decided to inform the Corporate Communications department (CC), also in order to get advice on legal matters. Corporate Communications suggested that the enterprising students expand the existing app and make it the official ETH app. The design of the application was customized accordingly and now includes the logos, scripts and icons of ETH Zurich. However, now that the status of the app was raised to that of the «official ETH app», the demands on its functions also increased. In addition to the menu plan for the canteens and restaurants, Wellig and his colleagues integrated additional useful applications such as the online magazine «ETH Life Online», the events calendar and the overview of ETH buildings.

Ubique – Latin for «everywhere»

Last October, the three soon-to-be computer science graduates founded «Ubique Engineering GmbH». The company develops high-quality programs for iPhones and other mobile platforms. Apart from an application for the internet comparison service Comparis, Ubique also developed the official ASVZ app (see inset). «Having ETH as a reference definitely helped us», says Wellig. He and his colleagues are now doing their masters degrees and working part time on their company’s projects. One of those projects is the development of the next update for the ETH app, with an integrated people search function. With just one click, users can call or send an e-mail to the person they were searching for. They can also locate the office of the person in question using a link to the map of buildings.

App of the Akademische Sportverband Zürich

The ASVZ app developed by Ubique has been available for download since December 2010. It is available in the App Store, also for free, by searching for «ASVZ». ASVZ got actively involved in the development of the app, hiring an external company for the design. The clear design of the ASVZ app allows users to access important information on the entire sport offering, the sporting facilities as well as their opening hours. There is a particularly helpful filter function for users to select the sports that interest them and only receive news on those sports. The «News» section contains the latest notices as well as cancelled classes.