“This app categorizes all the music in your phone by its tempo,” Leider said. “Once you put the music in your phone from levels one through 10 (one being the slowest music on your phone and level 10 being the fastest), the app will be able to recognize if you are walking (level one), jogging (level five) or sprinting (level 10), so it can match your running tempo with the tempo of your music. This helps people run with good form and it improves their running while they’re in their groove.”

The TempoRun app- was launched on May 20 and is available through Apple’s iTunes store for Apple devices, priced at $2.99. The app experienced instant popularity with 2,000 buyers in the first day.

Ebert-Zavos is a long-distance runner who ran in the Boston Marathon last month and said he doesn’t normally like listening to music when he runs-, but when Leider came to him with the idea of the TempoRun design, it was something Ebert-Zavos had to be a part of.

“With some of the research we have been doing we found out that listening to music while you participate in cardiovascular activities increases your output by up to 15 percent,” Ebert-Zavos said. “People have a love-hate relationship with running, so why not train a tool that can match your tempo? That is why with this app we are trying to build consistency and make running enjoyable.”

Leider and Ebert-Zavos eventually reached out to the MSU Department of Computer Science and Engineering, looking for some of the best computer developers it can offer. That is when they met Proschek, Tempas and Getzen, who are all currently interning with Microsoft this summer.

“We first started meeting in November to begin drawing up wireframes,” Proschek said. “Then once we started formatting the app, we realized this project was going to be bigger than what we’d thought. But after a lot of long days and long nights, we were able to get the job done and get this app out there in the market.”