The @ Company - Mobile Application Development

The @ Company considers themselves internet optimists that aim to make the internet better. They have developed an open-source technology at the protocol level providing individuals with a personal @sign to help them move seamlessly through the internet without being surveilled. The @ Company turned to the Level UP remote internship program to help find talented computer science students to co-develop mobile application minimum viable products (MVPs). One of the students they connected with through the program was Jasper.

Jasper Caswell is a student at the University of Saskatchewan pursuing a degree a Computer Science (B.Sc) with a minor in Mathematics. With an interest in software development and data analytics, Jasper joined The @ Company’s Level UP project and by the end of the project had published a mobile application he developed for the Google Play and App Stores.

Together with Jesse Aguirre, another University of Saskatchewan student pursuing a dual degree in Computer Science and Computer Engineering (B.Sc), Jasper’s team developed @Vento. Their mobile application is an event planner for students to help keep their schedules organized while making it easy to create and share events with their peers. Powered by the privacy of The @ Company, students are put in charge of their data.

Through this experience, Jasper was challenged to learn new coding languages. “Dart and flutter was something that was kind of new to me at the time so I was learning the programming language as I was developing the app,” said Jasper. “I was able to go to these daily standups to debug with Tyler (a Student Ambassador at The @ Company) and find out what was going on. That was very helpful to get things done and throughout that format, we were able to succeed in finishing and uploading an app.”

In addition to the planning and development of their mobile application, Jasper and his team had the opportunity to present their work at regular demo day events. Jasper recalls his very first presentation where he was incredibly nervous and how with practice he was relaxed and confident at his final presentation of a complete app. “It was nice to see the progression of being able to market and even just talking about what we’re doing became a lot easier the more we did it,” said Jasper. “It was definitely a great experience that made me better at public speaking”.

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Jasper reflects on the impact of the Level UP remote internship program, and talks about the app he was able to develop and launch alongside his teammate Jesse during their project with The @ Company.

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“@Vento was not just a project, but an app that is now released in the app store and play store,” said Denise Daniels, Head of New Initiatives at The @ Company. “To me, that’s a huge success story. It’s not just a project but it’s an app that’s out there!”

Through their Level UP project, Jasper and his teammate Jesse learned new programming languages, improved their public speaking skills, and as a result of their hard work they were able to develop and publish a mobile application to the Google Play and App Stores.

Thank you to Jasper for sharing his experience on Riipen. To learn more about how you can get started with the Level UP remote internship program as a student or employer, visit the website here. ‍Stay up to date with the latest in higher education, experiential learning, and the future of work, subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter, The Riipen Report.

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Riipen Level UP program is funded by the Government of Canada's Innovative Work-Integrated Learning (I-WIL) Initiatives program. The opinions and interpretations in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Canada.

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