We’re excited to announce the winners of the 2016 AdMob Student App Challenge, an app building competition for students. Over 100 student teams from around the world took on the challenge to build a great app and monetize it using AdMob, with a chance to win awesome prizes.

After reviewing our 4 regional finalists, our judges have selected the global winner who will receive will receive a trip to San Francisco, including a visit to the Googleplex. Chris Akhavnr, a judge for the Challenge and President of Publishing, Glu Mobile, enjoyed reviewing the apps, noting that “After reading the business reports, I was impressed by the amount of thought each team put into their app. I'm sure these finalists will go on to have a big impact in the mobile ecosystem."



Drumroll please…



Global Winner - Turbo Rocket Games
App: Dragon Sim Online

About the team. 
Turbo Rocket Games is a team of four: Vladimir, Yaroslava, Illya, and Serhii from Kiev, Ukraine. Vladimir and Serhii are studying informatics at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Yaroslava and Illya are studying computer science at Brock University. To build the app effectively, the team divided the work so everyone could focus on the aspect they were best at. As the project lead, Vladimir focused on managing the development process while Yaroslava took charge of game design. As programmers, Illya and Serhii worked in tandem to write the code for the game.
About the app. 
Dragon Sim Online is a game where you can become a dragon and play online with friends or by yourself. The app provides a true simulation experience by challenging players to maintain their dragons’ health and energy, raise a family of dragons, fight dangerous enemies and explore the massive 3D world. The app has been downloaded over 500K times worldwide with an average review of 4.5 stars.

Congratulations to Turbo Rocket Games and thanks again to every single student who participated! Until next time, be sure to stay connected on all things AdMob by following our Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ page.

Henry Wang
Product Marketing, AdMob

With less than two weeks left in the AdMob Student App Challenge, you should now be working on your business reports. In order to qualify, your team must submit a business report along with your app so please review the guidelines. Here are some tips to help you write your business report:

• The presentation and layout are easy - just follow the template on the AdMob website, and provide logical and cohesive explanations on each step of your decision-making process. 
• Give examples along the way. This does not necessarily mean flashy and colorful graphics, but a clear marketing strategy and an examples of your app’s performance will go a long way with the panel.
• Don’t worry about having the report translated to English. Submit the business report in the language you are most comfortable with.  
• It’s important to make sure your business report demonstrates a sound strategy behind the choices made when integrating AdMob into the app. 
• With your marketing strategy, talk about how you have already marketed your app, and what you’re doing to get the word out about your app and to maximize downloads.

While time is running short, continue to promote your app, monitor feedback, and get your business report wrapped up. The submission deadline is June 28, 2016 by 5:00PM PST, and this includes both your mobile app and business report. As always, follow us on AdMob G+ and Twitter for updates and keep an update on #AdMobSAC16 too, for any last-minute posts.

Posted by Jeff Miner
AdMob Student App Challenge Team

There is now a month left before the final submission date for the AdMob Student App Challenge. At this point in the contest, your team should have completed the design of your app, and it should be live on the Google Play Store. For the remainder of the contest, we recommend that your team focus on the following:

• Monitor user feedback so that you can make improvements as the app gets the feedback. Your app should be high quality, and part of that is improving it based on user suggestions.
• Remember to submit your app and AdMob account ID to AdMob so we know you’ve built it.
• Promote your app. Think about creative ways to do it. Next week, look for a post on promotional suggestions that are simple and effective. 
• Now is the time to start readying your business report, which is due on June 28, 2016 by 5:00PM PST through this link. The Challenge website already has a recommended template on it, and we will be sending out some pointers on having the best possible project soon.
• Remember, your project will be reviewed by a panel of app experts from Google, so your business report will need to be thorough and of professional-level quality. 

Continue to follow us on AdMob G+ and Twitter for updates on the last month of the Challenge and keep an update on #AdMobSAC16 too, for any last-minute posts.

The AdMob Student App Challenge deadline is fast approaching (June 28th) and we can’t wait to see your creative ideas come to life.

To make sure you’re fully prepared, join us for an informational Hangout on Air on May 20th. We’ll be sharing the competition’s judging criteria, tips on how to build an app that stands out, and answer any lingering questions that you might have. Here are the details:

Date: 20th May 2016
Time: 5:00 pm to 5:45 pm (IST)
Join Hangout on Air

You can ask questions in advance by:
a) Posting your question as a comment here or
b) Up-vote someone else’s question by giving it a +1 if you have the same query.

Feel free to share these details with anyone you think would be interested in participating. With a little over a month left, it’s not too late to register a team and build an app. We look forward to seeing you all on the Hangouts on Air!


Posted by Shefali Arora
AdMob Student App Challenge Team

Meet our final two judges, Craig Warner and Jon Potter. Craig brings a wealth of experience from a Google perspective, while Jon provides insights from the Application Developers Alliance. Read below for their perspective on app development: their suggestions will be a major part of the judging criteria for the AdMob Student App Challenge.


Craig Warner
Head of Publishers, Domains and Distribution, Google

What is your background and experience working with apps?
Help support the leading global app creators to make money through ads and in-app purchase.

What is the most important thing you look for when reviewing an app?
Simplicity.

What tip(s) would you give to a new app developer building their first app?
Ask yourself if you would actually use the app for more than a day.

What are some golden rules of app design?
Transparency about how you collect and use user data.  Performance and stability.

Anything else you want student developers to know?
Apps are not new, it was the way users interacted with computers before the web. The primary difference is price (much lower) and number of potential users (much greater). The fundamental characteristics of a great app don't change much over time.


Jon Potter
Co-founder, Application Developers Alliance

What is your background and experience working with apps?
My professional focus has been educating governments and public officials about apps and the app economy - promoting and protecting apps that disrupt entrenched industries (which often seek government protection) and also apps that independently draw government and legal attention (e.g., due to privacy, health care or other regulatory concerns). In 2012 I founded the App Developers Alliance, where I was President until late 2015.

What is the most important thing you look for when reviewing an app?
I review apps as a consumer (clear presentation, clean look, improve my life) and as an investor (solve a problem, improve many lives, disrupt large industries).

What tip(s) would you give to a new app developer building their first app?
Identify clear goals and deliverables. Stay focused.

What are some golden rules of app design?
Simplicity and clarity. Do one thing very well. Deliver value while I am disconnected (i.e., on an airplane).

Anything else you want student developers to know?
Great ideas require great teams to become great experiences and great businesses. There are so many magnificent opportunities - in consumer apps, industrial apps, socially beneficial apps. Play to win but don't forget to enjoy the ride.

As a reminder, there are only six weeks left before the final project submission date of June 28, 2016. In the coming weeks, we will shift our focus from app development and design to project completion, with reminders on timeframes and some best practices for your business report. If you’d like to learn more about the judging process please visit our AdMob Challenge judges page for more details. Lastly, remember to continue to follow us on AdMob G+ and Twitter, and keep an eye on #AdMobSAC16 too, for regular updates on the challenge.

Posted by Jeff Miner
AdMob Student App Challenge Team

After introducing Chris Akhavanr and Purnima Kochikar in the last blog post, we would like to introduce our next two judges for the AdMob Student App Challenge: Robert Unsworth and Gregory Block. They are part of a six-person judge panel that will judge your app, and decide on the Grand Prize winner. As a reminder, the Grand Prize winner will score a week-long trip to San Francisco, including a visit to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, as well as have their app featured on the Google Play store. To help you better prepare, we’d like to share some of the insights we gained from getting to know them, as well as what, in their view, makes a great app!


Robert Unsworth
VP Americas, News Republic

What is your background and experience working with apps?
12 years working in gaming, social and media apps across the globe.

What is the most important thing you look for when reviewing an app?
Usability and efficiency - within 60 seconds do I understand what it's for and how I need to use it in order for it to provide me with a service I need.

What tip(s) would you give to a new app developer building their first app?
Test it on real people and iterate frequently and quickly. Don't go just by the metrics but integrate qualitative feedback as well.

Anything else you want student developers to know?
There are two: Keep it simple and keep it simple.


Gregory Block
Director of Engineering, Google

What is your background and experience working with apps?
I've been responsible for the development and build of several apps, both inside and outside of Google, on both Chrome and in Android.

What is the most important thing you look for when reviewing an app?
Attention to detail of the user experience, and how well the app serves the core use case it's trying to address.  Users sweat the small stuff - developers should too.  Polish matters - it's not just about looking pretty, it's about feeling solid, responsive, and zippy.

What tip(s) would you give to a new app developer building their first app?
Sketch broadly, at first.  Build end-to-end use cases, and use them.  Iterate.  Don't go deep on a single screen and end up with unpolished areas, time-box yourself on things, and keep honest track of what's left to do. Don't end up on a death march in your last week of development because you spent time today doing things that weren't absolutely necessary. Don't cut the wrong corner at the wrong time.

And write tests. Because even if you think you're good enough to not need them, you'll wish you had by the time it's all over.

Anything else you want student developers to know?
Love your app. If there's something you don't love, your users probably won't love it either. Minimalism is more forgivable than lack of polish in the eyes of your users, but ultimately, you're the most important user to satisfy; be honest with and true to yourself.

If you’d like to learn more about the judging process please visit our AdMob Student App Challenge judges page for more details. Lastly, remember to continue to follow us on AdMob G+ and Twitter, and keep an eye on #AdMobSAC16 too, for regular updates on the challenge.

Posted by Jeff Miner, AdMob Student App Challenge Team

Now that we’re two months away from the deadline of June 28, 2016 to submit your app and business report for the AdMob Student App Challenge, we’d like to introduce our judges via a three-part blog post. They’re a panel of six industry experts who will judge the final round of the judging process and decide the Grand Prize winner.

The Grand Prize winner will score a week-long trip to San Francisco, including a visit to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, as well as have their app featured on the Google Play store. To help you better prepare, we’d like to share some of the insights we gained from getting to know them as well as what, in their view, makes a great app!

Chris Akhavan
President of Publishing @Glu Mobile, a leading global developer in gaming

What is your background and experience working with apps?

I'm currently the President of Publishing at Glu Mobile (we make mobile games like Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, Racing Rivals, and Cooking Dash), and prior to that I was the SVP of Partnerships at Tapjoy (a mobile ad network I joined in the early days and helped grow from 10 people to 300+ and $120MM+ [revenue?]/year).

What is the most important thing you look for when reviewing an app?

A simple and clean user experience. Great mobile apps immediately delight users within the first 30 seconds and deliver value with ease.

What tip(s) would you would give to a new app developer building their first app?

The biggest mistake I see new developers make is forgetting that they are designing for a very small device. I often see new developers using tiny fonts that are hard to read on a phone, and placing too many intricate buttons in the UI. Look at apps like Instagram and Clash Royale for inspiration on clear and simple mobile design.

Anything else you want student developers to know?

I'm excited to check out your apps!

Purnima Kochikar
Director of Business Development for Google Play, Google

What is your background and experience working with apps?

I lead the team that works with all the apps and games developers on Android/Google Play globally. I was also a software engineer in my past life and wrote apps - but that was a LONG time ago.

What is the most important thing you look for when reviewing an app?

• Utility (does it have a clear purpose - and that could be fun)
• Beauty (is it well designed?)
• Creativity (is it an innovative solution for the problem being tackled?)

What are some golden rules of good app design? 

The rule I like best is the 1-minute value - the user should get the full sense of your app within a minute.  Uber is a great example - within a minute you get all the information you need about finding a ride. To be able to do that Uber has reduced input required from the user by using the sensors on the device - such as GPS.

Anything else you want student developers to know?

Follow your heart - build something to solve a problem or create an fun experience that truly matters to you. The best apps are those that come from a deep-rooted interest in the topic.

Well folks, there you have it! We hope that these tips and advice can help guide you as you continue to build your app! Stay tuned for two more posts about our judges in the coming weeks.

If you’d like to learn more about the judging process please visit our AdMob Challenge judges page for more details. Lastly, remember to continue to follow us on AdMob G+ and Twitter, and keep an eye on #AdMobSAC16 too, for regular updates on the challenge.

Posted by Andres Calzada, AdMob Student App Challenge Team