It is called 'KickNKeep' and is a multi-player football video game which simulates one of the most exciting moments of a match, i.e. penalties. The particular aspect of this is that this game is an 'App' for iPhone and iPod Touch developed by Paolo Carrara, a student at the University of Milan who followed the 'iOS' course promoted by the I.T. Department at the University of Pisa. These lessons are classified as being at the top of the downloads from the iTunesU site. From an initial student attendance of 60, 46 finished the course and of these 19 passed the final exam in which a project had to be presented.
Paolo Carrara's 'App' was judged as being the best in the course for its graphics and the dynamics of its game which required a development of complex mathematical formulae to reproduce movements which truly capture the way a ball is kicked. With one movement of one's finger on the screen one can determine direction, effects and the speed of the ball. Or if one is playing the part of the goal keeper one can decide which corner of the goal to cover. 'KickNKeep' is, furthermore, the only 'App' multi-player to be designed which, in order to function, needs two devices which will interface via bluetooth.
Soon the 'KickNKeep 'App' will be available from AppStore, Apple's virtual store where already the project 'SatWeather' has arrived. This is by Andrea Tondo, a student of I.T. at Pisa, who, for his excellent project received a special mention at the end of the iOS course. 'SatWeather' is an App that shows animation of meteorological images captured by satellites (source: eumetsat.int and ssec.wisc.edu), for whosoever wishes to see 'with different eyes' the meteorological conditions in Europe and in the United States. It does not directly provide forecasts. However, by observing trends in atmospheric disturbance happening over the last two hours it is possible to get an accurate idea of what is going to happen.
The 'iOS' course has been a great success for students of the University of Pisa; the first set up in Italy, it has become the most downloaded from iTunesU in just a few weeks. In 12 lessons Goran Djukic, expert of the CNR (National Centre for Research), has taught how to program the famous 'App' for smartphones and tablets; and thousands of internet users have downloaded it from their homes. At the end of May 57,508 people were registered as having downloaded it.
Among the 12 projects handed in at the end of the course (initally with 60 students) four finalists were selected: as well as the winner for 'KickNKeep' there were those who created 'SportNews', 'ManyMoles' and 'iUnipi' – applications which will soon be arriving at Apple Store. The project 'List' received a special mention for its best code.