By Beth Salamon
When it comes to loose change – the pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters that seem to multiply daily – most people throw it into some type of a container and vow to count it later. But the pile usually gets bigger, the jar becomes full, and exactly how much money has been saved becomes a mystery.
“It’s something that everyone can relate to,” said Jeffrey Abraham, 27, of Livingston. “You empty your pockets, put the change aside and tell yourself that you’ll count it later.”
To fix the problem and make saving more than a guessing game, Jeffrey and two others who met at Rutgers Coding Bootcamp, built Cash Cache, a smart piggy bank app that lets individuals set their savings goals while keeping track of coins and providing a tally. The group decided to name it Cash Cache (pronounced “cash”) because in the computing environment a cache is a place where something – like coins – is temporarily stored.
Using a Raspberry P13 – a credit card sized computer connected to a programmable device that accepts and counts coins -- the three men created the app that transfers the exact dollar amount over Wi-Fi from the counter to an online account.
“It was designed to be as simple as possible to use and targeted towards a young market,” said co-developer Adam Mattas, 33, of Fords. “You can simply insert the loose change from your pockets at the end of the day into the coin acceptor and you will always have an accurate count of your coins.”
What differs Cash Cache from other smart piggy banks on the market, its developers say, is that it is easier to use and they believe would be less expensive to create. The higher-priced version on sale today looks like a typical piggy bank but holds a limited number of coins, said 24-year-old Matthew Bajovek, who graduated from Rutgers in 2015 with a degree in engineering and worked as a mechanical engineer before deciding to take the six-month Coding Bootcamp program.
Matthew now works as a full-stack developer at ClassLink, a provider of cloud-based education products that connects teachers and students in the classroom. He and his coding cohorts always loved technology. Whether programming apps for fun, gaming or teaching themselves to code, the three men decided that they wanted to learn more about coding and web development in order to work in the high-tech industry.
That’s why they enrolled in the Coding Bootcamp program, offered by Rutgers Division of Continuing Studies, which provides an intensive six-month program teaching the skills needed to become a “full stack” software coder. When aspiring software coders complete the university-based program, they have the skill set needed to create a website or app from start to finish.
The three devoted two evenings a week, and four hours on Saturday, learning the language that helped them create the “Cash Cache” app for their final project and the skills they needed to create computer software, apps and websites. Many hours were also spent at home learning the codes that power computers.
Over the next five years, the U.S Department of Labor expects higher salary web development jobs to increase by 20 percent. The Labor Department says demand will be driven by the growing popularity of mobile devices and ecommerce.
To find out more about the Rutgers Coding Bootcamp, or to enroll in the program, call 732-430-2144 or visit us at our website.
