Rivard Attempts to Crack Code in Senior Year

Thinking back on it, co-captain Laurent Rivard cannot remember exactly how he began to code.

“I actually never figured that out,” Rivard said. “Maybe from my mom. I took some classes in high school, and ever since, I knew I wanted to do that.”

Rivard’s passion for coding is unique on the Harvard men’s basketball team. No other player on the squad is a computer science concentrator. The late-week problem set due dates and all-nighter ethos of the field make it a hard balancing act with varsity sports.

During the year, when Rivard often has to travel for Friday and Saturday games, he said that to balance the load he must begin work almost as soon as he receives an assignment—staying ahead in school and on the court.

“It’s harder during the season because we definitely have to travel, and the whole time in general it is very hard,” Rivard said. “Every assignment, I try to start early and work on it a couple hours every day so I can figure it out. I have to start all of the assignments early and can’t wait to the end to work on them.”

Rivard’s coding career thus far has centered around his work with the iOS application development platform. The senior’s strongest coding language, Objective C, is the base of all iPhone app development, and he already has two apps to his name, with a third on the way.

The first, written for his Computer Science 164: Software Engineering class, helps to coordinate fitness routines. According to the Quebec native, the app closely monitors a workout and stops and starts music to help create a routine in the gym.

The second, written last weekend with two fellow seniors at the Harvard Public Safety Innovation Hackathon during a 30-hour coding marathon, warns citizens about crime in their area and allows citizens to report crime more easily. According to Rivard, the app, called Crimesource, provides students in dangerous areas easy access to emergency phone lines.

“It tracks you at night, between 8pm and 5am, and once you enter an area where there has been a lot of crime—like above the city average—it will tell you so you are aware you are in a dangerous area and to let you know if you need to turn around,” Rivard said. “If you turn on the app, there is a button so that you can call the local emergency center. For Harvard campus, it will call HUPD.”

Rivard’s biggest project, however, is an ongoing effort with two Dartmouth collaborators. The application is still in development, but the senior is targeting something he has quite a bit of experience with—the fan experience at college basketball games.

“It has been really challenging but also really fun so far,” Rivard said. “We are just trying to enhance the fan experience for fans. The app will let you check in at every game that you go to, adding in certain players and teams to let you follow them.”

Other features of the app include connecting fans at each game with one another through social media, allowing them to get a sense of the crowd mood throughout the game. Fans will also be able to make micro-donations to the team of their choice during the contest.

Rivard said that one of the most appealing parts of coding is the way in which it is both individualistic and team-oriented. Although computer science is ultimately the product of steady work spent honing the craft on one’s own—much like the private shooting sessions Rivard uses to develop his basketball game and, in particular, his three-point shot—teamwork is integral to success on larger projects.

“It is something you can do [both] on your own at night and in a team setting,” Rivard said. “It is fun to do something very different than basketball. It is really interesting to tackle a challenging problem and try to come up with the best solution. What is really cool is when you get a new idea and you can use it to solve big problems. That is when the coolest things can happen.”

With the time that he devotes to basketball, Rivard said that he appreciates the ways that coding is both similar and different than his on-court game.

Especially in the middle of the season, he said, coding provides a good change-of-pace from the Ivy League season.

“Like [in basketball], you are definitely working with a team setting, and you definitely have to go out and work together, especially when you are coding next to them,” Rivard said. “[That said,] I think it is pretty different than basketball, and that is part of why I enjoy it so much.”

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @CrimsonDPFreed.