Army announces winners of contest to develop smart phone programs

The five winning entries from an Army contest to develop programs for smart phones will support the service's physical training, mental health, disaster relief, mapping and recruiting efforts, according to an announcement on Thursday.

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, the Army's chief information officer, said upon launching the Apps for Army contest in March that he wanted to tap the software development skills of what he called "digital natives" serving in the Army. He said in a statement on Thursday the response exceeded his expectations.

More than 140 soldiers and Army civilians registered as individuals or teams for the contest. Participants delivered 53 Web and mobile applications by the May 15 deadline. Entries went through a security review and then went to a panel of judges from the service.

Judges selected 15 winners in five categories, and 10 honorable mention entries. "These 25 apps represent more than two times the number of certifiable apps we were hoping for and expecting from the program," Sorenson said. "Each application will help overcome mission-related challenges through the power of mobile and Web devices."

Three of the winning applications run on the Android operating system from Google and one runs on the iPhone from Apple. The other can operate on both the iPhone and Android-based phones.

The first place contestant in each area received $3,000; the second place winner, $1,500; and the third place winner, $1,000.

First place winners, by category, operating system and application are:

Information Access

New Recruit (Android)

Provides information for potential recruits, including military rank and insignia, Army news feeds, an Army physical fitness test calculator, and a Body Mass Index calculator.

Developer: Thomas Maroulis, Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center; Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.

Location Awareness

Movement Projection (Android)

Allows soldiers to enter obstacles and threats along roads -- in addition to stopping, starting and ending points -- and then maps out the best, safest and fastest route.

Developer: Luke Catania, Engineer Research and Development Center; Alexandria, Va.

Training

Physical Readiness Trainer (iPhone)

Helps soldiers develop their own physical fitness program based on the Army's new Physical Readiness Training program; includes training plans and exercise videos.

Developers: Maj. Gregory Motes, Capt. Christopher Braunstein and Capt. Stacey Osborn of the Army Signal Center; Fort Gordon, Ga.

Warfighting/Mission Specific

Disaster Relief (Android)

Assists Army personnel working in humanitarian relief and civilian affairs operations with a Web-based data survey, dissemination and analysis tool for searching, editing and creating maps viewable on Google Earth and Google Maps.

Developers: Andrew Jenkins and Alex Ly of the Engineer Research and Development Center; Alexandria, Va.

Morale, Welfare and Recreation

Telehealth Mood Tracker (Android and iPhone)

Allows soldiers to track their psychological health over days, weeks and months, to help document experiences associated with deployment-related behavioral health issues.

Developers: Robert Kayl, Scott Swim and Robert Van Gorkom of Madigan Army Medical Center; Fort Lewis, Wash.

A complete list of Apps for the Army contest winners is available on the Army CIO website.