Apps Born In Baton Rouge

Apps Born In Baton Rouge

From It's Baton Rouge: Out to Lunch by ItsBatonRouge.la

March 14, 2026 · 28 min

About this episode

Nash Mahmoud discusses his experience as a professor and software engineer, and his efforts to improve the way students evaluate their professors.

I’m Amy Irvin, host of Out to Lunch in Baton Rouge. I was a college student once. A long time ago. And like a lot of college students, I picked some of my classes based on the professor. Word of mouth, mostly. What my friends said. Whether the 8 a.m. course section was worth getting out of bed for or not. These days, there’s a website that tries to do that systematically. You’ve probably heard of it. Rate My Professor. And if you’ve ever spent time on it, you might have noticed it’s also a place where students settle scores, write reviews about a professor’s appearance, and occasionally make things up entirely. My lunch guest, Nash Mahmoud, noticed the same thing. He happens to be a professor. He also happens to be a software engineer. So he built something better. Nash came to the United States from Jordan in 2008 to pursue a graduate degree at Mississippi State. He got his master’s, then his PhD, then a tenure-track faculty offer at LSU — and somewhere along the way between learning his way around campus, walking to football games, and dining at local spots around town, Baton Rouge became home. He’s been teaching software…

People in this episode

Guest: Nash Mahmoud

Topics covered

  • education
  • software engineering
  • Baton Rouge
  • Rate My Professor

Keywords

  • college
  • reviews
  • anonymous feedback

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Professor Index, OfficerApps

Books & works: PhD, Out to Lunch

Places: Baton Rouge, the United States, Jordan, Chicago

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