We handed indoor navigation over to students and the results are far beyond our expectations
24 hours, 14 different ideas and more than 20k lines of code. This is what Campus App Challenge looks like in plain numbers. But during the event we achieved so much more than that! The event combined technology, business and science to create solutions which will make campus life easier. The winners created an app prototype for the blind and visually impaired, which uses voice assistance to help them navigate between classrooms and lecture halls, and is controlled by simple tapping and an intuitive interface.
Coding for a noble cause
How can students spend their spare time productively? Five undergraduates from Warsaw and Cracow had a very ambitious goal to achieve. During a 24-hour hackathon organized by Indoorway and Daftcode at Warsaw University of Technology, the best technical university in Poland, they created an app prototype, which is not only a piece of cutting-edge technology but also tackles real problems their alma mater struggles with.
After getting familiar with Indoorway indoor location technology, coding, integrating, deploying and testing for the entire day and night, the team presented their model of an advanced indoor GPS, which guides around multi-storey campus buildings with voice assistance and is controlled simply by tapping and swiping on the smartphone screen.
WHO estimates that the number of the visually impaired in the world is 285 million: 39 million blind people and 246 million having low vision. Poor adjustments in academic buildings are often a serious barrier for their autonomy. We’ve noticed that the design of new venues takes into consideration the requirements of people with physical disabilities, but not those who are visually impaired. There, it’s hard to find audible signaling devices or assisting tactile labels, which makes moving around the building very challenging.
The app we’ve created, Indoor Available, collects data from online students’ services automatically, which feeds it information about the individual schedule of the user or real-time changes in it, such as last-minute cancellations or rooms swaps. The application of Indoorway’s indoor positioning system enables setting the most convenient paths, which, along with the voice assistant, makes it easy to get to your destination, overcome turns and other obstacles in the building— says Tomasz Urbaszek, the leader of the winning team and co-creator of Indoor Available.
At the same time, the winners emphasise that Indoor Available is suitable for all the students who have trouble with finding certain rooms and halls in the area. It can also be applied in any other public spaces, such as shopping malls, museums or airports.
The jury of Campus App Challenge, including our representatives, appreciated the app’s flexibility and simplicity of both using and implementing it in buildings.
The students kept the app clear and easy to use, and yet managed to deal with the needs of their disabled peers, which is a very complex matter. It’s uplifting to watch young developers coding for a good cause and using their skills to improve academic life — says Tomasz Janusz, the head of the jury at Campus App Challenge, Indoorway CTO.
On the other hand, the mentors present at the hackathon praise the technical aspects of the winning app.
Daftmobile develops apps on a daily basis, so we know how hard it is to create a smoothly operating system in just 24 hours. The winning team gave up sleep and the whole weekend to focus on developing the app that will help their friends. What they presented is a great, scalable concept with solid lines of code behind it — says Kajetan Dąbrowski, Daftmobile CEO.
From students for students
The winners were awarded attractive prizes, but — what’s more important — they also were offered a possibility of turning the idea into a ready-to-market product side by side with Daftcode and Indoorway, who provide the team with business mentors, as well as sales and marketing support to bring Indoor Available to life. Such cooperation with professional managers and developers opens up a wide array of possibilities of inducing Indoor Available to Polish and foreign schools.
It’s the students who know best what kind of technical improvements should be applied in campuses. Due to their fresh perspective and fierce determination, they created a fully practical and inspiring app, which can be easily implemented in any school, college, university or other crowded, indoor venue worldwide. The hackathon was the first step to digitizing campuses and making smart buildings and cities happen — says Grzegorz Koblański, Indoorway CEO.
Indoorway digitized one of the Warsaw University of Technology buildings, so that students, even after the hackathon, can build and develop their apps. In total, there were 14 teams competing in Campus App Challenge. Each one was working on a prototype of an indoor-location-based app. Among their ideas, there were solutions for first-year students or guests who don’t know the building well, as well as socializing apps and those for better communication between students and their professors.
The future of smart universities
Indoor Available team is now looking for seed funding. The app will be deployed and available for students of Warsaw University of Technology as soon as they polish the prototype and deliver the first version of Indoor Available. Moreover, if everythings goes according to plan, it will be available for 50 more universities in autumn this year. We estimate that nearly one million students will be able to use the app the day it’s released.
While still developing the app, the founders are talking with the community to get their precious feedback and make the app as good and useful as possible. They’ve also made it to TechCrunch! On behalf of the whole Indoorway team I have to say how happy we are to be a part of this project. Keep it up guys — together we’ll start a digital revolution!
