I led the mobile developement for a transformation project for the historic Galveston Texas City Pilots, a 180-year-old maritime association whose operations were hampered by an inefficient and error-prone legacy system of paper. I engineered a cross-platform mobile application in Flutter for their pilots, which was complemented by a web-based administrative portal for shore-based staff, all connected via a central API. The final product revolutionized their process, delivering an exceptional return on investment.
Mauro was fully responsible for the development of the mobile application for a project in Texas, USA. In his role, he managed the requirements with the client, proposing technical solutions that reduced both the development cost and the long-term operability of the application. He also worked c... more »
The Challenge
The Galveston Texas City Pilots, an association with a rich 180-year history, faced a significant operational bottleneck. Their critical task of coordinating 30 pilots relied on an outdated mix of paper, spreadsheets, text messages and a legacy software.
This created communication lags and inefficiencies where any delay could lead to substantial financial losses. The challenge was to design and build a modern digital system from the ground up that could solve these issues and withstand the unique, often disconnected, environment of maritime work.
Technical Solution
As the main developer for the mobile application, my role was to architect, build, and deploy the solution.
My involvement covered every stage of the project:
- System Architecture: I designed the complete system, which included a mobile application for the pilots that comunicates with the administrative portal via API. The key challenge I solved was creating a robust offline-first architecture. I knew pilots would lack internet connectivity on vessels, so I engineered the app to store all data locally and synchronize automatically with the central server only when a connection was available. This guaranteed 100% functionality at all times.
- Mobile App Development: I single-handedly developed the cross-platform mobile app for the 30 pilots using Flutter. This choice allowed for a single codebase, ensuring a consistent, high-performance experience on both iOS and Android devices, which was crucial for their diverse hardware. I focused on creating a clean, intuitive user interface that would be easy to use in demanding field conditions.
- API Integration: I managed the integration between the mobile application and the back-end. I worked with the API that connected to the web admin portal, ensuring that data flowed smoothly and reliably between the pilots in the field and the dispatchers on shore.
