Development of Structural Engineering and Educational Applications Using Gamesalad

As the sales of smart mobile devices overtake that of desktop computers, it is accepted in the IT/Computer industries that eventually more applications and data would be accessed through smart mobile devices. Furthermore, due to their touch interface, using these devices are more easy and accessible for children and adults, increasing their usage even further. In this regard, it is imperative that more applications in the field of engineering and education be developed for these devices.

The main challenge in developing for different devices is the need to familiarize with different programming languages. Academics and professionals, already busy with their work, may find it difficult to develop programs for these multiple platforms. To solve this, Gamesalad (www.gamesalad.com) developed a program which would enable non-programmers to do programs with sophisticated interfaces and features for different devices.

This paper discusses the application of the Gamesalad program in the development of structural engineering and educational purpose applications. It would be shown that through its easy to use coding techniques and compatibility for all desktop and mobile platforms, useful programs for students and professionals can be made even without deep programming knowledge for all these platforms. This would help education progress further to the mobile age.

A short introduction and tutorial for Gameslad will be shown first. After this, the applications of Gamesalad to the following examples will be discussed: (1) A Simple Graph Program (2) A Truss analysis program using touch only (3) A reinforced concrete beam program considering seismic design and detailing requirements and (4) Concrete Strength Prediction using ANN Model.