After a year of assessment and creation, two university alumni have launched an app that has gained traction from over 2,800 students.

PortableLion, an app developed by Damodar Dahal and Aakash Amatya, has allowed students to discover campus facilities and services, get updated on campus news and events and conveniently access campus portals such as Moodle. The development began in May of 2019, and the two creators have since achieved full completion of the app.

Dahal, a recently-graduated computer science and mathematics major, explained how they created PortableLion to cater to the needs of students and faculty on campus.

“As students at Southeastern, we deeply understood the student body’s problem,” shared Dahal. “Moreover, as international students, we understood how hard it can sometimes be to transition to a college lifestyle. That is why we took the help of more than 200 students over a period of 14 months (so far), and more than a dozen faculty members to understand the problems and to come up with a solution that will impact students’ lives.”

PortableLion features a Campus Map that allows students to track the Lion Traxx shuttle in real time, a News & Events feed that provides campus-related tweets, emergency alerts and other notifications, a Frequently Asked Questions tab and a Quick Links tab for quick access to Moodle, LEONet, Webmail and other campus services.

Dahal and Amatya completed the beta launch of PortableLion back in January and released the full version on Aug. 15.

Amatya, a summer 2020 graduate with a degree in computer science, expressed that PortableLion is just the beginning.

“Due to high traffic adoption of mobile devices, Southeastern will eventually need to switch to a mobile-first approach,” said Amatya. “PortableLion is the beginning of a long road.”

The two graduates have also gained massive amounts of support from both students and faculty members.

“We received massive support from everyone, including Dr. John Crain, Dr. John Burris (Department Head of Computer Science), Provost, Dr. David Hanson (Department Head of English), Dr. Mike Asoodeh (Chief Information Officer) and other chief staff in the university,” shared Amatya.

The full version of PortableLion is now available for both iOS and Android devices.

Stephanie Light, a sophomore management major, shared her experience using the app.

“I love it,” said Light. “I use it basically every day for Lion Traxx, Moodle and LEONet. I like looking at the news feed when I have downtime on campus, and I literally always find something to do.”