An Application That Applies To Everyone

College students have a lot to keep up with these days.Classes, homework, projects, research papers, quizzes, and tests are only the biggest pieces of the pie for most students. Many of them have to work as well -- some part-time, others on a full-time basis. Because of this, being able to manage their time is vital to all of them.

I know that finding time to do everything that needed to be done has always been a challenge for me between working full-time and taking 12-15 credit hours each semester. One of the biggest issues has always been dealing with traffic to school and to work. Not knowing where the traffic jams or construction zones are from one hour to the next is a hassle. Even worse is when there is an accident or if the police are in pursuit of a suspect, which can shut down a road for an indeterminate period of time. How can the average student stay informed about such things?

It is our proposal that we utilize technology that is already available. The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) has a number of cameras located on the main thoroughfares surrounding the main campus, as well as most of Shelby County, as seen below.

You can access these cameras from their website in order to get a live picture of exactly what is happening:

Another important aspect -- and one that often affects traffic -- is that of police activity in the area of the main campus, as well as that of any of the satellite campuses. This information is also available online, as seen below.

Another way to access both traffic and police activity information is through the application INRIX, which is available on most smartphones.After all, many, if not most students have smartphones now. And better still, why not tailor it to each student's specific needs? Take the traffic information, as well as that of the current weather and any police activity in the area, and set it to to each individual student's class schedule. The only way to get this app would be to login using their UUID. In this manner, each student will be able to open the application on their phone and instantly see if there are any issues facing them on their way to class, whether from home, work, or anywhere else they might be coming from.

To give you an idea what this would look like, here are some screenshots of the information that could be available to each student:

Utilizing this level of information will be of a tremendous benefit to all students, but especially those who have to commute to class daily. It takes the important information already provided by the Tiger Text alerts, and helps to apply it to a wider area of needs across the board. In the Age of Information, this would be the thing that not only sets the University of Memphis apart from the crowd, but also proves most beneficial to its students.