Tech Action, a programming club advised by math teacher Michael Richardson and led by senior Jerry Liu, has created a time management tool sanctioned by the school counselors. The tool is available to students through Facebook.

Tech Action members have finished the first version of the application but are currently working on a second version. Because students often do not manage their schedule effectively, the purpose of the tool is to help them organize and keep track of their work load.

“Time Management is a tool used to give a rough estimate of a person’s weekly schedule,” Vice President Michael Yen said. “For example, when a user inputs his or her classes, the application will automatically generate a rough estimate of the amount of homework time spent in the class daily. It also allows the user to customize their personal activities, such as sports and schools, and factors that into his or her daily schedule. Once the user submits their inputs, the application generates a page that provides an overall summary of time allocated to activities, sleep and free time each week.”

As of now, the club’s goal is to continue working on and expanding this time management tool project. Members hope to create a more user-friendly version of the Time Management tool that will attract more students.

“Our primary concern in development phase, is to predict what users would want to use and see,” Michael said. “Creating the site has [consisted of] observing major website companies, such as Google, Facebook, Tumblr [and] Stack Overflow, and discussing how their designs and features make them successful.”

So far members of Tech Action have worked together closely, and through the process, have become exposed to many different facets of computer programming.

“I really like how I can work as part of a team and see the tangible results of our efforts,” Director of Education senior Alice Hau said. “Tech Action is a very encouraging environment where anyone, no matter what his or her experience or background in programming is, can share ideas and explore different aspect of software engineering.”

Students have enjoyed the environment during past club meetings. It has been a learning experience for all members of the club.

“It’s fun because I get to share my programming interest with others,” Alice said. “I get to teach the people who are new to the world of programming some basic java. And more experienced programmers in turn teach me more advanced programming so I can contribute to the software project.”

The club’s purpose is to encourage and inspire students to learn about technology and software programming. In Tech Action, members learn both how to code on various platforms and contribute to software projects.

Students can access the Time Management Tool at http://apps.facebook.com/lahstimemanagement/