Jorge Cruz, Fresno State business professor, runs a business called Core Software Integrated, giving students a chance to develop tech solutions in a real-world setting. Photo contributed

Core Software Integrated (CSI), founded in 2018 by Fresno State Business Professor Jorge Cruz, brings user interface design services to a new environment.

CSI offers mobile app creation and development, along with high-level website development, with teams in Fresno and Nepal, as well as assistance and education for information systems students at Fresno State.

“Core Software Integrated is a full UI/UX design and software service provider,” said Cruz. “We do front-end, back-end; we also do web pages, but our forte is in web app development.”

UI means “user interface design” while UX refers to “user experience design” — both refer to the way people interact with technology, products and services.

Tailored to specific needs of the customer, CSI develops software products and provides support from idea to implementation, offering round-the-clock support to customers around the world.

CSI assists customers interested in developing web-based applications from the ground up, supporting them from concept inception all the way to the finished product. It also provides business analysis, data management and app testing.

“We now can develop an application, a mobile app, that can work on both platforms [Apple and Android],” Cruz said. “In the old days, you had to develop twice; now we can develop once and have it work across the board.”

The company specializes in products that assist everyday app consumers. Partnered with Fresno State’s IS187 class, CSI utilizes future tech creators to assist in app and website development.

CSI has worked on multiple projects, including the Peddler app, an application geared towards assisting mobile food vendors. Similar to other food delivery apps, Peddler expands the service to mobile food vendors, a service previously untapped.

“Peddler basically is a way for tourists [to] locate food sources — street vendors,” Cruz said. “If the vendor has it up, we locate them. We can make the transaction paperlessly and pick up the product right at the vendor.”

In addition to ground-up projects, CSI has also assumed control of projects, including Kolyde , an app originally developed by Bitwise before being handed to the CSI team for expanded development.

“It took them about three years, they decided to move it on, and we went ahead and tackled it,” he said. “We redesigned it and we were able to complete this app in seven months.”

The Kolyde app is in beta testing and will be used in various classes at Fresno State this fall, and Cruz hopes it will soon be introduced to other local colleges such as Fresno City College, Reedley College and Clovis Community College.

Kolyde aims to drive conversation by offering different ways for users to debate and discuss topics from a reliable platform.

“It can be done anonymously, it can be done face-to-face on video, [or] it can be done live if that’s what they want,” Cruz said, hoping that the app would drive student discussion and interaction. “Students for whatever the reason do not interact in class.”

Among other applications in development are Military Chatter — an application aimed at connecting veterans and members of the military with one another across the world.

Their latest accessibility app, PCA Now will, when completed, provide personal care assistants to individuals suffering from physical disabilities.

“This app is in development,” said Cruz. “We’re in the process of releasing a mobile app — a site where a PCA, for a fee, can add themselves as ‘available,’” he added, outlining that the app will enable more mobility for people with disabilities. “We tend to want to work with individuals who are physically challenged; that is our way of giving back to the community.”

Many CSI applications are in testing and development at Fresno State in Cruz’s IS187 classes every semester, where students are introduced to website design, introducing UI/UX development to business students.

Kolyde, Peddler and PCA Now are all aimed to be released by the end of the summer, in time for college students to be able to take advantage of the services that CSI provides.

“We’ve actually put a lot of volunteer time into that [development],” Cruz said. “We’re investors in that product because we want to make it happen for them.”