Marcus Gabilheri, an Oklahoma State University computer science sophmore, was awarded a first place prize in the second annual OSU App Center contest. The theme for the 2013-2014 contest was “Innovating Insurance in my Life” and was sponsored by AAA Oklahoma and CSAA Insurance Group.

The contest consists of two phases: Phase I focuses on “Best App Idea”, while Phase II takes submissions for “Best Developed App”. Phase I awards $500 to each submission chosen among its top 10 app ideas and $750 for its two winning ideas.  Phase II takes the two winning ideas and develops them into a mobile app. The Phase II first-place winner is awarded $5000.

While Gabilheri's idea was chosen among the top 10 in Phase I, it was actually his development of one of the winning ideas that won him his first-place prize in Phase II.

Gabilheri spent between 100 and 125 hours developing the app, "Insuring My Life", with help from Jeremy Avery, a graphic designer from California. He used the program StackOverflow to complete the Android mobile app for submission to the contest.

As a computer science major, Gabilheri spends a lot of his free time developing mobile applications. He knew about the OSU App Center contest from the year before, but the 2013-2014 contest was the first time he could participate. The contest provided a great opportunity for him to develop his skills on a specific theme and to win a substantial prize.