UPEI student creates app to facilitate tourism and help locals in PEI.
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| UPEI Student Francis Mbonu has created an app called MyPEI. Yakosu Umana photo |
By Yakosu Umana
Francis Mbonu launched his app,
MyPEI, on Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play store, last Tuesday.
The app is meant to serve as a local
guide, as it features functions such as getting a taxi, reading news, finding
restaurants, local business and more.
“MyPEI is a general utility app. It
doesn’t have a major function, it’s just a combination of different things,”
Mbonu said.
The second-year computer science
major is from Nigeria.
Back home, he went to a
software-developing camp during his gap year.
That was when he began, and learnt
how to develop software, Mbonu said.
“During the camp, I was getting
ideas on what to create, and different projects to work on.”
He and his twin sister moved to PEI
last year.
They both lived in a homestay, where
he learned that tourism was important to PEI.
Conversations about PEI tourism gave
him ideas on what to develop, he said.
“They (homestay family) usually
talked about tourism in PEI. It was during those conversations that thoughts
came into my head…
“If this is what’s important to this
place, what can I do to help tourists, help others, help everybody.”
Mbonu began learning how to use
Google’s software-developing, Flutter, last June. He used the kit to develop
his app.
He faced challenges while creating
the app, and is glad he finally made it, he said.
“I feel a bit achieved. This is my
first app on the play store and app store.”
However, it’s just the beginning of
his software development, he said.
“I have bigger things to achieve. If
I can do something like this, I can do more.”
Mbonu looks forward to seeing Islanders
and tourists using his app.
“Hopefully everyone can download the
app. If everyone uses the app, I feel like my work didn’t go in vain,” he said.
MyPEI is free to download in the App
Store and Google Play store.
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