Insert two Davis High School students, a computer and an entire summer; out comes the brand-new Android-exclusive app “Bookbag.”

Senior Sheehan Selim and junior Sam Chung, co-founders of the app, teamed up last May to create a product that they hope will impact their community in a positive way.

“It’s basically a specialized app for local textbook sales from colleges. So we’re focusing on UC Davis first,” Selim said. “And if it gets picked up there, then we can expand it to other campuses.”

Despite its name, the app doesn’t actually sell books.

“We’re just the middleman. Because the same books are used for basically every class, there’s no need for you to always buy a new book,” Selim said.

Instead, UCD students can make a verified account with their Facebook profile and put their books up for sale. They can search for book titles, contact sellers and set up meeting times. In addition, students can rate sellers with the goal of building reputations for future transactions.

The app hasn’t seen much action since its launch in early September, but the teens aren’t worried. They’ve set up Twitter and Instagram accounts and created an informational website: bookbagdavis.wixsite.com/home.

“We do not have the functionality on the website,” Selim said. “The website is more so people can just know what the app does, and also they can sign up to get notified when the IOS version comes out.”

So how did the idea originate?

“I know that college students are always complaining about getting ripped off when it comes to buying textbooks,” Selim said. “You have to buy them at ridiculous prices and then sell them for next to nothing to bookstores.

“And I’ve actually experienced that myself when I bought a textbook for a college class. So I wanted to change that.”

Selim approached Chung with the idea and he began working on the prototype immediately. As an app programmer for Citrus Circuits, Davis’ award-winning robotics team, Chung jumped at the chance to improve his skills before competition season.

“We were very limited in our programming knowledge, so I only knew Java as my dominant language,” Chung said. “I use a developing environment called Android Studio, and that’s where you can design an app and then functionally program it.”

Like any power duo, the two boys ran into a few problems along the way — one being that Chung spent the summer in South Korea.

“That was a big challenge because we couldn’t really meet in person and actually see it,” Selim said. “So we had to rely on email and some screenshots to see what the app would look like.”

Another issue that prolonged the programming of the app was software bugs.

“Once you fix one bug, you’re hit with another five. … (Robotics) trained me to persevere and even if the problem is so big that it takes me a week, just do it,” Chung said. “Keep researching, keep learning and keep finding out new ways to solve a problem.”

And that’s exactly what Chung did. He fixed all the bugs and is already discussing improvements with Selim.

“We want to be able to have a better chat system because right now, it’s just one-on-one,” Selim said. “But maybe we could have our app organized by classes so that way students that are same major or in the same dorm even can just connect with each other.”

The boys’ plans don’t end with Bookbag. They’ve created a developer name — Gradient Apps — and have ideas for other possible products.

“I think we both want to see Bookbag succeed first, and then move on to another project in the future,” Selim said.