When visitors come to Georgia Tech, they can meet some of the top scientists in the world, the next generation of researchers — and a few dozen feral and stray cats. Everywhere from the eaves of Bobby Dodd Stadium to the bushes surrounding the School of Architecture buildings, more than 40 cats call campus home. 

The cats love Georgia Tech — not just for the adoring students who try to sneak in pets between classes, but also because of GT Campus Cats. The registered student organization is led by undergraduates who feed, provide shelter, handle trap-neuter-return (TNR) services, facilitate fosters and finding forever homes, and provide veterinary care to members of the cat colony. Now their work is a lot easier, thanks to a new app.

Developed by computer science students in a capstone class, the app simplifies tracking the cats on campus. Anyone with a GT login can access the app, where they can see photos and bios of known cats, explore a map of sightings, and even add their own.

Building the Purrfect App

Caroline Hatcher began her term as GT Campus Cats president in November 2024. At the time, the organization relied on the website platform iNaturalist to follow the cats, but the system wasn’t very user-friendly. So, when a computer science (CS) capstone class asked the group if they could design an app for them, the group pounced on the offer. 

“Our main concern was being able to use it on a phone because iNaturalist doesn’t work well on mobile,” said Hatcher, a fourth-year architecture student. “With the app, you can log in with the GT single sign-on, which makes it easier for students to use.”

Through virtual meetings over five months, organization members worked with the CS students to determine the app’s needed features. The team included computer science undergraduates Will Akins, Matthew Pendarvis, Dragos Lup, Robert Zhu, and Amulya Panakam.

Hatcher could tell it was more than just a final project for them.

“The computer science students were genuinely interested and came out to workdays with us when we built shelters or did TNR, so we could tell that they cared,” she said.

One of the biggest concerns was who could have access to the app. While GT Campus Cats has 250 members, with 80 assisting with TNR, shelter maintenance, and feeding the cats, up to 2,500 people are on the organization’s GroupMe text chat. As popular as the cats are, the group wants to ensure they stay safe, and they don’t want to encourage strays being left on campus. Consequently, the app has different permissions for different members. Anyone with a GT login can view which cats have been identified and report sightings. But only group members can see where the 14 campus feeding stations are.

Maintaining the Meow Map

For the CS students who created it, making the app was rewarding. Unexpectedly, half of them are allergic to cats but wanted to help the campus cats anyway.

“We wanted to build this because we knew it would have a tangible impact on the campus, like the GT scheduler, a tool to help people create their class schedules that students also developed,” explained Robert Zhu, who graduated this spring. “The chance to leave that kind of legacy is something we were very interested in.”

While the capstone project is over, use of the app is rapidly increasing. Hatcher is actively adding cat profiles to the map, and Zhu plans to refine the code this summer. He hopes the app will eventually be maintained by student nonprofit Bits of Good to ensure it keeps meeting the needs of GT Campus Cats — and, of course, the four-legged friends it serves.