May 1, 2025
By Dina Shlufman
On a daily basis, thousands of Cornell students check out campus food locations with Eatery, search the TCAT schedules on Ithaca Transit, and get details about Cornell’s gyms on Uplift. All three apps were created by AppDev, a Cornell University engineering project team.
Cornell has 36 project teams that create unique and innovative products while helping our world, but only Cornell AppDev creates apps catered specifically to the Cornell community. The team, which was founded in 2014 by Eric Appel ’16 and Lucas Derraugh ’16, is currently composed of 50 students.
“I felt like AppDev was a club where I could use my knowledge that I learned in CS to really make a difference in the Cornell community,” said Jennifer Gu, M.Eng. ’25, AppDev’s team lead.
Students teaching students
In addition to creating apps, the organization teaches four student-led courses: Introduction to Digital Production Design, Introduction to Android Development, Introduction to iOS Development, and Introduction to Backend Development.
According to Antoinette Torres ’26, AppDev’s vice team lead, AppDev was the first student organization to create a student-led course at Cornell. The courses are completely free for students, and they can earn up to two credits for taking them.
Gu said the course instructors don’t get course credit or money from teaching; rather, they all have a genuine interest in giving back to the Cornell community.
As the face of the club, Gu says she enjoys “bringing everyone together.”
Gu’s passion for AppDev began before she even set foot on campus. She wrote about joining the organization in her Cornell college essay.
During Gu’s freshman year, she took two AppDev courses. Throughout her time in the club, she’s been able to learn from AppDev alumni panels and leverage the club to gain interview experience. Gu also found her closest friends from AppDev. Now, she wants to give back.
“I really feel like the most fulfilling part of my job right now is to help others grow," Gu said. "I mentor the younger members.”
Developing a community
The leadership structure in AppDev is such that it allows for continuous mentorship. There are multiple pod leads who guide a group of students working on one app.
Yucheng Shu ’26, the pod lead of a new AppDev application called Score, a one-stop-shop for all things Big Red Sports, enjoys using AppDev to make an impact on campus.
“We built Score from zero to one,” Shu said. “This is just a perfect example of identifying potential needs on campus…and then actually building something that’s impactful to address their need through my passion for design and making apps.”
Although Shu joined AppDev due to his interest in creating user experiences, he grew to love the club’s environment. He even plays the keyboard for the informal AppDev band called Tiny Desk.
Among Shu’s favorite AppDev events were a Design Team social, where the whole team went to a cabin for two nights, and the Final Showcase at the end of the semester, where all of the pod leads present their app progress from the semester.
“AppDev does a super great job at cultivating a great culture,” Shu said.
Monica Lee ’26, AppDev’s product lead, also says she’s grown socially because of AppDev, explaining that she’s made lifelong friends.
Lee initially joined the team due to her experience working on two startups.
“I grew to really love running a lean, resourceful, scrappy team that focused on innovation. I felt like I wanted to look for that kind of community on campus,” Lee said.
As a hotel administration major, she initially thought project teams were only looking for technical majors, but she still decided to apply and give it a chance. Now, she says she’s joined an incredible community of individuals who help her learn.
“We’re a community of bright, excited, and hardworking individuals, and it keeps me excited to continue to be curious about the world,” Lee said.
Looking for people who care
This fall, for the first time ever, AppDev will be recruiting from the pool of first-semester freshmen.
“We wanted to make sure we were sourcing top talent and ensuring that people weren’t waiting an entire semester to join the team,” Torres said.
For prospective AppDev members, Gu said that genuine passion for the club goes a long way.
“We’re looking for people who care,” Gu said. “So obviously, the technical competency has to be there. But there’ve been multiple times where we would take someone who is more motivated and passionate about AppDev than someone who’s just purely really good at coding.”
Shu, Gu, Lee, and Torres all say the impactful community AppDev has given them is irreplaceable.
“When I look back at Cornell, one of the first things I’ll think about is AppDev,” Lee said.
Dina Shlufman ’27 is a student writer for the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.