{"329601":{"#nid":"329601","#data":{"type":"news","title":"GT Journey: Enriching the Campus Experience","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIt\u0026rsquo;s something most new students experience: going into a classroom, choosing a random seat and possibly being stuck in that seat for the semester. Some students luck out and snag the perfect spot; it\u0026rsquo;s comfy and situated near an electrical outlet. For others, the chair might be broken or it\u0026rsquo;s in a Wi-Fi dead spot.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EYing Yao realizes that finding the perfect seat is a small problem, but it\u0026rsquo;s one she wanted to tackle. So she and two other Georgia Tech students decided to build a web-based application.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;So you know when you look online and book a flight?\u0026rdquo; she said. \u0026ldquo;You wanna know where\u0026rsquo;s the best place to sit. So we wanted to apply that issue to classroom seating.\u0026quot;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003ESeatMe\u003C\/em\u003E is a crowdsourced app; students can log in, find the appropriate building and classroom and rate their seat based on specific criteria. The evaluation is represented via a heat map\u0026mdash;a two-color scale of good and bad. (\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=X3tSWN4gvNY\u0026amp;feature=youtu.be\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EWATCH: A demo of \u003Cem\u003ESeatMe\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E)\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EYao\u0026rsquo;s team developed the app in 2012 as part of Tech\u0026rsquo;s bi-annual \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/cic.gatech.edu\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EConvergence Innovation Competition\u003C\/a\u003E. The competition is open to all Georgia Tech undergraduate and graduate students, including those studying abroad. Applications, services and prototypes developed during the Fall CIC benefit the Georgia Tech community; winning apps are then made available in the official \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/m.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EGT Mobile\u003C\/a\u003E platform.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Fall CIC is sponsored through the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/gtjourney.gatech.edu\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EGT Journey\u003C\/a\u003E initiative, which provides resources as well as technical support and space to work. What makes the competition unique, though, is the access students have to campus data.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAndrew Nelson, who helped Yao to develop the \u003Cem\u003ESeatMe\u003C\/em\u003E app, is currently working with Facilities Management to open up their data on how much electricity is flowing to buildings on campus. He\u0026rsquo;s also taken campus crime data and developed it into an API format.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Programmers could go in and pull in all of the crime data live as it\u0026rsquo;s posted,\u0026rdquo; he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBrighton Jegarajan leveraged GT Journey transportation data to develop a Google Glass app that tells users when the next bus or trolley will arrive.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Once you have this (data), it\u0026rsquo;s up to users and the students here to think of innovative ways of using it,\u0026rdquo; he said. \u0026ldquo;So there\u0026rsquo;s a lot of innovation and creativity engaged by making this data available to students here.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESome \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/08\/28\/nyregion\/students-inventing-programs-to-streamline-their-colleges-data.html?_r=2\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ecolleges and universities\u003C\/a\u003E aren\u0026rsquo;t as comfortable with allowing students to access campus data. They\u0026rsquo;re concerned about student privacy and find it\u0026rsquo;s easy to just say no.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026quot;Georgia Tech is able to provide access to data and protect that data appropriately because it has developed API\u0026#39;s which enforce access controls specific to the data being accessed. This allows developers to create applications using those API\u0026#39;s without having direct access to another student\u0026#39;s data, and without ever having to handle the students password,\u0026quot; said Matt Sanders, Associate Director of the Georgia Tech Research Network Operations Center (GT-RNOC) which hosts the CIC. \u0026quot;These API\u0026#39;s also allow data which is normally not accessible to students to be made available in scalable and secure ways which do not impact production systems.\u0026quot;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EYao believes student-built apps developed with campus data help to enrich the campus experience.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We have such smart students,\u0026rdquo; said Yao. \u0026ldquo;They want to be able to not only practice their professional skillset, but also contribute something to the campus community as well.\u0026rdquo;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Fall GT Journey CIC is underway right now. Organizers are hosting weekly information sessions and tutorials, and there\u0026rsquo;s a four-day Hack Break starting October 11th. Entries are due October 31st; for more information, visit \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/cic.gatech.edu\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/cic.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E or \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/gtjourney.gatech.edu\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/gtjourney.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EStudents use Georgia Tech data to develop applications, services and prototypes as part of the Convergence Innovation Competition.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Students use Georgia Tech data to develop applications, services and prototypes as part of the Convergence Innovation Competition."}],"uid":"27980","created_gmt":"2014-09-29 14:37:33","changed_gmt":"2019-07-11 14:29:26","author":"Alyson Key","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-09-29T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-09-29T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"329611":{"id":"329611","type":"image","title":"Ying Yao and Andrew Nelson","body":null,"created":"1449245090","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:04:50","changed":"1475895041","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:41","alt":"Ying Yao and Andrew Nelson","file":{"fid":"200316","name":"ying_andrew.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ying_andrew_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ying_andrew_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":256448,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ying_andrew_0.jpg?itok=5nkYYezA"}}},"media_ids":["329611"],"groups":[{"id":"69599","name":"IPaT"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"42901","name":"Community"},{"id":"42941","name":"Art Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"}],"keywords":[{"id":"179311","name":"platforms"},{"id":"104881","name":"Andrew Nelson"},{"id":"5157","name":"applications"},{"id":"104911","name":"Brighton Jegarajan"},{"id":"63931","name":"CIC"},{"id":"63951","name":"Convergence Innovation Competition"},{"id":"104931","name":"Georgia Tech Research and Network Operations Center"},{"id":"82341","name":"Google Glass"},{"id":"47801","name":"gt journey"},{"id":"104901","name":"GT Mobile"},{"id":"104921","name":"GT-RNOC"},{"id":"104861","name":"Matt Sanders"},{"id":"169017","name":"SeatMe"},{"id":"104871","name":"Ying Yao"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"39451","name":"Electronics and Nanotechnology"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAlyson Powell\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nInstitute for People and Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["alyson.powell@ipat.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}