Alabama students help create fisher-focused safety app

<article id=”post-140665″ class=”news”>Boaters and fishers on the water in the Gulf of Mexico have a student-led University of Alabama project to thank for a new safety app offering important weather, fishing, boating and safety information available for smartphones.</article><article></article><article class=”news”>The MAAP-AWI app was created by the university’s <a href=”http://ovpred.ua.edu/alabama-water-institute/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Alabama Water Institute</a> and the <a href=”https://masgc.org/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium</a>, along with students in UA’s <a href=”https://mis.culverhouse.ua.edu/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Management Information Systems</a> program, and allowers users to access information about weather, tides, bouy stations, water safety and fishing regulations based on users’ locations.</article><article></article><article class=”news”>“You’d normally have to search for all this information separately, so it’s really a one-stop shop,” said Presley Gobbell, recent UA graduate and marketing lead for the MIS team.</article><article></article><article class=”news”>While the app currently doesn’t work outside the Gulf of Mexico, its creators said they may expand its map later.</article><article></article><article class=”news”>The app started as a partnership project between AWI and Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant in 2019. 
<p>“I have become a big fan of undergraduate capstone projects,” said Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Director LaDon Swann. “I am amazed at what a group of dedicated students can do during a semester. As a fisherman, I have always looked for ways to reduce the number of phone apps I have to check when planning a fishing trip. This app has the potential to be the go-to app for me.”</p><p>The first team of UA MIS students developed the app’s framework before handing it off after they graduated. The current team of students finished the first version of the app in the fall. Most are now graduates, but they’ve left behind a wish list as current students add updates and new developments.</p><p>The app is available on <a href=”https://apps.apple.com/us/app/awi-mapp/id1564134784″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>iOS</a> and <a href=”https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.ua.awi.mapp” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Android</a> by searching “MAPP-AWI.”</p></article>