The selfie trend is soaring and so are downloads for College of Charleston Computer Science Major Will Jamieson’s Front Flash Android app. A selfie is a self-taken photograph usually posted online via social media outlets. Jamieson realized that in low light, selfies don’t turn out because most phones do not have a flash on the phone’s front camera.
“I was trying to upload a photo of myself to Snapchat one night and all I could get was a black screen,” Jamieson explains. “At that moment, I decided I was going to make an app that emulated a flash with the front camera. I had no idea that I would be on track to have a million users within two months of launching.”
The app launched on June 7, 2013 and has more than 5,000 photos taken daily in 56 different countries. Jamieson and his app have been featured in several online blogs, on an Atlanta radio station and in South Carolina newspapers.
“I went through hours and hours of error tracking to get it just right and there are still some improvements to make,” Jamieson says. “The College of Charleston’s computer science department really gave me the tools I needed to build this app. Even though an Android Development course is offered, I never took it, it was the Data Structures course that helped advance my critical thinking and bug tracking, which was a major task in the development of the app.”
“Will was hesitant about selecting our computer science program over that of many top universities in Georgia, his home state,” says Chris Starr, professor and chair of the computer science department. “I am thrilled to say that the promises that the computer science department made to Will about access to people and opportunities through personal mentoring, teaching and coaching have been delivered and Will has leveraged those opportunities fantastically in his app project. Undergrads here are cared for more like graduate students at other universities.”
Based on Jamieson’s success, he created his own app company, SupremeApps.org and plans to develop additional apps to be released under this name.
For more information, contact Will Jamieson at jamiesonwm@g.cofc.edu.
