A college student who felt disconnected from social events at his new school decided to something about it, and created an app to help others in the process.
"It's stuff that you can see on campus, like a hacker night, if people want to sit down and code," said Soya Diaoune, who just transferred to Valencia College from the Florida Institute of Technology this year.
New to campus — and to the social scene — Diaoune said he'd see things posted on campus, but felt out of the loop.
"I realized that myself, I don't even pay attention to fliers, and sometimes it's just Facebook invites, but you have to be friends with a bunch of people before you know what's happening," Diaoune explained.
So, three months ago, he figured he'd change that with an iPhone app he calls Scoutivity.
"With the app, just by looking around, you can see what people are organizing," Diaoune said.
It's all there, from get-togethers to club meetings.
"I love the way how people connect through apps," Diaoune said, explaining his inspiration. He grew up fascinated by them and started learning to code in high school through Youtube videos.
Diaoune said with Scoutivity, he wants to help out fellow college students first, and then expand to the greater public, confident that his everyday project can improve students' lives.
"I can't predict the future. It will be in the hands of the users," Diaoune said.
He may soon contribute to Orlando's growing tech scene, but Diaoune remains modest.
"I wouldn't call myself the new Mark Zuckerberg, or Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or anything," he said with a smile.
Diaoune said just getting Scoutivity in Apple's App Store was a hurdle, but a worthwhile one.
He recently launched an upgraded version of the app that allows students to be more interactive by commenting and posting pictures.
Though download numbers remain meager at this time, Diaoune said he's tacked on two dozen more downloads of the latest version and has two friends helping him to promote the app.