Jacob DeGagne, Charleigh Hammer,
Jacob Ludwick, Alexis Young
Professor Neumann
MIS Honors
Final Project Business Proposal
SmartRES Application Proposal
Everyone in our group is a freshman living in the dorms on campus. At the
University of Arizona there are 23 different dorms, with a total capacity for 6,612
residents. A total of 80% of the residents are freshmen, and moving into the dorms can
be overwhelming with all of the new experiences their first year of college brings. Our
group drew on our own experiences, and also observed the main problems in the dorms.
We came up with a few solutions that could make the transition from living at home to
living in the dorm easier for students, and improve the dorm lifestyle. We decided to use
this project to address the problems that we saw in dorm living. We wanted to make an
app that facilitates students moving into the dorms.
We talked to students living in dorms to see what problems they faced. We did
this to pull ideas from the community to better our application. In one incident, a girl got
locked out of her room in her towel, her RA was not there and she didn’t know the RA on
duty’s number. So she had to walk all the way down to the front desk in her towel to get
a key to get into her room. If she had been able to easily access the information on how
to contact who the RA on duty was, it would have been a much less embarrassing
experience for her. Amber Kitay and Brandon Coppel in Coronado said, “I’m sick of
carrying my laundry down and finding all the washers are taken.” Jacob Wait in Villa De
Puente described how, “there was a guy who needed serious medical attention, and I
could not get ahold of my RA. I wish I would have known who was the RA on duty and
how to get ahold of them.” Lily Wilhelm in Arbol de la Vida complained “I have spent
countless hours searching for an open study room in Arbol when I could have been using
the time to study or work on my homework.” Many people had stories similar to theirs,
and we saw recurring problems that we believed we could come up with solutions for.
Our idea was to come up with a dorm facilitator at your fingertips. Living in a large dorm
can be a great resource for first year college students, if the students know how to take
advantage of these opportunities. The dorms offer a diverse environment of people and
resources and by having the SmartRES Application students will become aware of the
events going on and have access to the many aspects of living in the dorms. The app
serves as a helpful tool that has many different functions to insure that students can have
the best living experience possible. We believe a residence life app that will keep
everyone living in a specific dorm connected. The University of Arizona is ready to
launch a new application to better student life. Knowing the success of the Arizona App,
having a different app to cater to residence life will only make living on campus more
appealing. This application will make residents’ lives much easier, connected, and it is
very convenient for everyone involved.
To go into Specifics, the SmartRES app will be catered to an individual student.
The user will log onto the application using their Arizona Net ID and Password. By using
the Arizona Network, it provides security so the public cannot gain access into a specific
dorms information nor can someone access the app if they’re not a student at the
university. The app will be catered to the individual dorm that they life in. Residence life
should already have information on file about which student is living in which dorm.
Laundry Section
One of the first problems that we saw when looking at Residence Life was the
possible inconvenience that comes along with doing laundry in the dorms. The app
initially started off as something that was tied to the laundry system that notified you
when you laundry was done and let you know if there were washers available. These two
key features address the two biggest problems when it comes to the laundry service.
Those big problems are the high possibility of bringing all your laundry all the way down
to the washer room only to find out that all washers/dryers are in use. In order to alleviate
this issue, the app would be connected to the washer system and would keep track of the
washers and dryers currently in use and let the user know when the next one is open if
none are at the time. When it comes to the situation of having no washers available one
simply has to check their phone to see that they have a certain amount of time until a
washer opens up. But what happens when a washer is finished and the person does not
know that it is done, this still leaves a closed washer. Not only does the app keep track of
open and in use washers, but it also notifies users when their laundry is ready. The benefit
of this part of the app is that is makes the entire laundry process much or efficient and
allows for a smart laundry room that makes living in the dorms much easier. This part of
the app will improve the campus not only by creating an efficient laundry system but it
will also create a more satisfied consumer. This more satisfied customer will be the
resident living in the residential halls. They will benefit from the laundry section of the
app because it will make doing laundry much easier and will make them happier with
living in the dorms. By improving the quality of residential life, the customers are
satisfied and the campus is improved by a happier group of people living in the dorms.
Mailing System
Another problem we set out to overcome when creating a Residence Life
application was the fact that many residents here at the University of Arizona do not
know when they receive mail. Coupled with the fact that residents do not receive any sort
of notification when they get mail, students are extremely busy with classes, studying,
and extracurricular activities; they do not always have “checking their mail” at the top of
their priority list. In turn, many residents either forget to ever check their mail or they
check sporadically enough that they end up getting their mail weeks after the hall
received their mail. To fix this very simple issue, the app will notify the user when they
have received mail in their mailbox. This part of the app will work in a similar way
students are notified they have packages before the app. As of right now, when a student
receives a package the desk assistant sends the resident an email letting them know they
have a package. With the help of the app, instead of emailing the resident, all the desk
assistant has to do is log in as a desk assistant to the app and give the residents
notifications when they have mail and/or packages. This new method of notifying the
residents when they have mail or package is not only a better and more efficient way of
organizing mail, but also allows for less emails being sent to the students. Everything
mail related is put together into a single app resulting in on-time mail reception and an
overall more efficient system. Again, this part of the SmartRES application is beneficial
to the campus because it allows for a happier customer by giving them an efficient mail
notification system. Since the students living in the halls are customers of the school they
are going to, and the school will provide the app to them, the value of having the app is to
make happier customers. The app will be beneficial to the students (customers) because it
makes receiving mail and living in the dorms easier and more satisfying knowing that the
school they are going to is doing their best to provide the best experience for their
students.
Study Room Section
A problem often encountered living in the residential halls is that many students
are studying around the same times and others occupy many study rooms or they are
using it for a tutoring session. This is a problem because often times students will spend a
lot of precious time they could be spending studying wandering the halls attempting to
find a study room. In order to fix this issue, the study room section of our app will have a
list of all the study rooms on each floor and each wing and a notification if a room is in
use. The logistics of how this part of the app will work is difficult to figure out. Our team
thought that either each room could be equipped with a CatCard scanner than a student
could use to check into a room, which would then display a room in use on the app. Since
this would make signing out of a room voluntary, most likely not all the students would
sign out of the rooms making this part of the app less reliable. To fix this issue, the study
room portion of the app could also run by the motion sensor lights in each room. If the
lights are on in a study room, the app would show an “In Use” status until the motion
sensor lights turn off when it recognizes that the rooms are no longer occupied. This
would get rid of the voluntary option of signing out and make the “Study Room Section”
of the app more reliable and efficient. In order to make efficient tutor sessions in the
study room, a student would have to check in and mark a timer for how long they expect
to be in the room. When the time is up, they would receive a notification on their phone,
and they could either check out of the study room if the session is over, or add more time
if needed. This section of our app improves the campus because it allows for students to
be more studious and study better, resulting in better grades. This improves the campus
by improving students’ GPAs and it gives residents a better learning and studying
environment within the halls. This benefits the consumers (students) because they can
now study more efficiently and not waste their time wandering the halls looking for study
rooms.
Discussion Board Section
Moving into the dorms can be a scary experience if you do not know many people
in your hall. Getting to know others could be difficult if you do not know where others
are located and/or what activities they are involved in. The Discussion Board section of
the SmartRES application is a live “Twitter-like” feed that is constantly updated
whenever a residence life member posts something. Because users sign into the app using
their NetID, the user can post in the discussion section of the app and their personal name
will appear as a result of logging into the app. This use of signing in with their NetID will
eliminate the possibility of fake accounts using the app, or people using the app that are
not even living in the halls. As stated earlier, this section of the app can be used to talk to
new people in the beginning of the year; but as the year goes on we believe it will evolve
into a different tool for residents. Say somebody loses something or needs to borrow an
item, they can simply post in the discussion board, “Hey guys, does anyone have a ruler?
I have misplaced mine and need to borrow one!” By posting on the discussion board all
other residents can see this message and let their fellow student know that they can help
them out by lending them a ruler. This section is beneficial to the campus as a whole
because it will create Residence Halls that are more connected and more inviting in the
early stages of the year. It will create a better community on campus by bringing together
the residents and creating a friendlier atmosphere. The Discussion Board section of the
app is beneficial to the consumers (students) because they now have a simple feed that
can let them know what others are up to, or who can help them out if they need anything.
Announcement Section
The current medium UA Residence Life and the Residence Hall Association used
to distribute information in the dorms about upcoming events is posters distributed across
bulletin boards in the halls. This method of handing out information is inefficient for
many reasons, and the time to move to digitized distribution has come. With the
SmartRES smartphone application, it will become much easier for the info to reach the
residents while eliminating the use of thousands of sheets of paper as well as the need for
the RHA to post all of the information on bulletin boards. Providing the information to
students in a place where they are familiar increases the likelihood they will see it, and
what better place than the smartphone. Push notifications would alert the student there is
new information to be read, making sure all information is passed on effectively.
Eliminating the use of poster paper also fits in with the university’s dedication to striving
to being more environmentally friendly, especially in the residence halls. The
Announcements Section is an important feature of the app that keeps residents up to date
and active participants in the many available opportunities in the dormitories.
Residential Assistant Information Section
One of the most important features of the SmartRES application is the Resident
Assistant Information section. Students living in the UA residence halls depend on the
RA’s for many things including distributing information, maintaining a safe environment
in the dorms, and a contact in times of need and emergency. When problems arise,
residents should have the contact information for the RA of their hall and the RA on duty
readily available. While the RA on duty’s number is posted in halls, many students do not
have the number saved onto their smartphones and it is often not placed outside, where
one would need it in the case of a lockout. In cases of emergency, it is imperative the RA
on duty can be contacted quickly, as in many cases every second counts. Having to
search for the phone number is not what is needed, but making sure someone who is
trained in dealing with emergencies can be present. We felt this area of the app would
further improve the residence life experience by providing information in a familiar and
readily available place, where one could simply pull up the app, click the RA’s number
and be connected in seconds.
UITS, Residence Life, and Margaret Flint
As explained throughout this proposal, we believe that the SmartRES Residential
Life application would be extremely beneficial for the school and for students living in
the dorms. The school would prosper from the newfound efficiency in running Residence
Life and the app will facilitate moving into the dorms for new students. When presenting
our business ideas to the many listeners at the Honors Showcase we encountered many
professionals who were interested in our idea. A few people listened to our presentation
and said, “that’s nice” with a smile and went on there way. But quite a few stuck around
to listen to our presentation then asked questions about how we would produce this
application. One woman who had the most interest in the app was Margaret Flint, who is
a Business analyst and works at the University Information Technology Services. She
questioned us about how each section of the application would work and the
infrastructure needed for each section as well. We explained that a few aspects of the
application already have the infrastructure that is needed for the app, all that needed to be
done is to put it on an app together. She was able to explain to us that some of the aspects
of our application were great ideas but there was no infrastructure for it yet. After she
said this, she took one of our business cards and asked us to email her in order to work
with UITS and Residence Life to make the application happen. The people responsible
for the creation of the SmartRES application would be a combination of our team, UITS,
and Residence Life.
Here is a link to our video for the SmartRES Application:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhNszcBiOFc