USD MySDMobile App Nominated for Webby Award

USD MySDMobile App Nominated for Webby Award

My SDMobileApp

The University of San Diego's MySDMobile App is one of five nominees from around the world vying to win a prestigious Webby Award as well as an online voting competition for a Webby People's Choice Award.

The Webby, a leading international award honoring excellence on the internet, was established in 1996 and is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. The Webby Awards honors excellence in websites, interactive advertising and media, online film and video, mobile and app and social web.

USD is a Webby finalist in the Mobile Sites and Apps for School/University category along with entries from Australia, Denmark and, in the United States, universities in Indiana and Massachusetts. The Webby Award winner will be announced on April 26, but the Webby People's Choice Award online public voting runs now through 11:59 p.m. on April 21. The USD community can participate by logging into the MySanDiego Portal or at this link: http://sandiego.edu/webbys 

The creation of USD's MySDMobile App has been a signature digital component for USD students and has been part of the Mobile First Strategy across all of the universities' internet platforms.

"This is wonderful news to be selected as a nominee for the 2016 Webby Award from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences," said Chris Wessells, chief information officer and vice provost at USD. "It's truly a pleasure to have such a talented team in enterprise technologies. Our Mobile First Strategy is absolutely a best-in-class model for other universities."

The USD MySDMobile App currently has 5,400 active users. The app enables the USD community to know about and attend athletics events, receive notifications about campus wide activities and news on the app on mobile devices. Students use the app each year on a daily basis, finding it helpful to quickly look up when the next tram arrives, where their classes and their professors' offices are, find out class grades and know their campus cash balances. The app also serves as a virtual ID card, allowing students to use it to check into campus events, campus offices and purchase meals at any on-campus dining facility. There's also a safety check feature that lets students know about safety tips and gives them access to campus safety resources.

"We are very honored to be nominated for the 20th annual Webby Awards for best mobile app at a university," said Avi Badwal, senior director for enterprise technologies at USD. "A lot of hard work, innovation, and vision went into building the MySDMobile App and we are proud that USD is being recognized as a leader in the education mobile app world."