98 percent. This is the figure for the proportion of adults over 20 using smartphones in South Korea, according to the report of the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank in the U.S. It directly shows how many people in the country use smartphones in their daily lives. As the number of smartphone users has increased, more and more application developers have tried their best to make user-friendly apps that provide convenience. At Chonnam National University (CNU), there is an app development team called “Team The Z”. The Chonnam Tribune met these team members and listened to their mentoring app development story.

Who Is Team The Z?
The reason why they named the team “The Z” (Z means ground) was because they intended to be faithful to the basics. The team belongs to the IT club “Econovation” at the university, and its members share various computer programming experiences and work on various team projects, such as developing websites, apps, games, and AI software. They now take charge of creating a mentoring app called “Dotoring” to connect CNU underclassmen (mentees) who want advice on overall school life, majors, and jobs with upperclassmen or alumni (mentors) who want to help those in need. Dotoring is a combination of words “Do” (Korean auxiliary postposition which means “also”) and “mentoring”. They aim to afford the mentoring that every student wants to receive through their app.

The team consists of six members: Project Manager Lee Si-hyun (Junior, Dept. of Software Engineering) directs the whole app development. Designer Yoo Su-min (Senior, Dept. of Design) is responsible for the visual design of the app. Back-End Developers Hwang Dae-seon (Junior, Dept. of Intelligent Mobility Convergence) and Lee Seung-gun (Senior, Dept. of IoT Artificial Intelligence Convergence) make the app system stable, getting involved in specific development policies for effective operation. Android Developers Im Su-mi (Senior, Dept. of Industrial Engineering) and Jang Hyun-ji (Junior, Dept. of Software Engineering) bring the app systems to life on smartphone screens.

Three Mottos of “Dotoring”
They made three mottos when developing the app Dotoring: Reliability, Accuracy, and Connectivity. For reliability, they select only qualified members to give trust to mentees. If mentors are students or alumni, they should submit proof of enrollment or a diploma. If mentors work for companies, they should submit proof of employment. Hwang Dae-seon said, “Besides this thorough process, the app itself is more reliable because it is based at the university where we live.”

Securing accuracy is their goal as well. They provide customized mentors to mentees in order to increase the matching accuracy. Lee Si-hyun said, “The more various options mentees have, the more precise matching could be. We use the financial support system run by CNU to recruit mentees who specialize in teaching mentees. In this way, the pool of mentors will be extended.”

The other is connectivity. Dotoring, as an intermediary, helps mentors and mentees form a sense of solidarity with each other. She said, “Through this app, we provide a place of communication and meeting.” Keeping the three mottos intact, they plan to release the app next March, supplementing insufficiencies and going through multiple beta tests.

Jumping Over the Hurdle
Developing apps requires large amounts of dedication. Especially in the early stages, developers spend so much time coming up with ideas and mapping out drafts. In this regard, Yoo Su-min told their story. “We started to suggest ideas with our mentoring experiences. Based on the inconveniences we felt in the mentoring process, we gradually embodied the idea, thinking about ways we could improve on it. We also benchmarked competitors' apps and tried to apply parts that those apps don't have to our apps.”

During the interview with the Tribune, they confessed that it was a bittersweet feeling now that Project Dotoring is coming to an end. Hwang Dae-seon said, “Building a system that recommends proper mentors to mentees was the toughest part.” Similarly, Im Su-mi added, “Building servers and databases from scratch to accept data related to the app was definitely challenging for me. Also, the process of checking whether the very data was correctly delivered was very tricky.” However, even though it was hard work, both agreed that nothing could be better than to see the app finally working after finishing each part of development.

Generating Synergy Together
All members have a great ardor and passion for their team. Jang Hyun-ji said, “Here, I was able to enhance my understanding of the development processes and gain collaboration skills.” Lee Seung-gun also said, “We dream of working in the IT field. It is a valuable experience to come together and develop apps with colleagues who have the same goals.” The team members emphasized that it is important to challenge ourselves to do our best, and encourage other students at our university to do their best when it comes to their achieving goals. Following their own advice, the members of Team the Z themselves always work with unfailing passion as they prepare to welcome the future Dotoring users.

By Choi Daniel, Reporter