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As my teacher finished his lecture, I took a quick glance at the homework board to see the due dates for upcoming assignments. Seeing so much work to do this weekend, I took between, say, thirty seconds to a minute scribbling down the due dates into my handy-dandy planner. As I headed over to the next class, I saw the homework board and realized I have more work to do. Groaning, I took roughly thirty seconds copying down the due dates into my planner. At the next class, I spent between a minute to two minutes writing down the due dates. The cycle repeats again and again, where, by the end of the day, I wasted nearly three to six minutes writing down the due dates. To make matters worse, I forgot to do my chemistry homework because I forcibly crammed the due date into the bottom corner of my planner. “You silly, how careless of you! It’s so tiny that it’s barely even legible. It’s no wonder you foolishly forgot to do it,” my teacher bursts laughing in response to my dilemma.
Can’t this time be better used somewhere else? I thought. Maybe I could be chatting with my friends or ask the teacher a question on something I didn’t understand quite well. Essentially wouldn’t it be better if these reminders were automatically written in a safe place everyday?
Many people questioningly said, “You’re going to try to accomplish something similar to the degree of Noah’s ark? You!?” Nevertheless, I trudged onwards. Spending most of the past summer developing this app (Smart Planner), I encountered many obstacles and, consequently, spent hours after hours debugging my code. Although it may sound like a chore to many, I found it enjoyable as I navigated through the twists and turns to find the root cause of the issue — this is yet another example of how programming, specifically debugging, can be treated similar to solving a puzzle. Sometimes I collaborated with others who faced similar issues on Stack Overflow (a question and answer website for programmers); they challenged my preconceptions and presented approaches that I never thought of before. At other times, the solution came as an “aha” moment after scanning through hundreds of lines of code and brainstorming creative reasons behind errors. Essentially, programming is almost like being a detective — go to multiple sources, collect various bits of information, and finally put the pieces together.
Unless you’re like a few select people who can memorize the due dates and keep track of everything in your head, then get Smart Planner! Instead of having to write assignment deadlines on the homework board everyday, professors have the ability to create assignment reminders in the app in just 1-2 minutes. Students can look at these reminders whenever they wish throughout the day. Any user can also give comments and ratings to other users, regardless of whether they’re professors or students (similar to RateMyProfessors). Say goodbye to outdated paper daily planners (and deforestation), and say hello to Smart Planner! Happy planning — and studying!
If you were interested, see this link for more information about Smart Planner: https://sites.google.com/view/anubhav-sen/software-development-projects/tagout?authuser=0https://sites.google.com/view/anubhav-sen/software-development-projects/smart-planner?authuser=0
Great work Anubhav! Not only was this app a great idea, but you went the extra mile in actually creating it. I like how you started off with your personal story and thinking behind the app, and the steps you took to create it. While this was not necessarily an advertisement post for your app, I am definitely persuaded in downloading it.
I really love reading about your passion for programming and how it leads to awesome creations such as the app you made! Even with this story alone I feel like you can convince people to download it and try it out.