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December 10, 2008, 03:25 PM ET
Mobile College App: Proposed Service Would Let Students Report Cold or Hot Classrooms
Lately I’ve been hearing clever ideas on how to use mobile phones for services on campuses so, over the next couple of weeks, I plan to highlight particularly interesting ones. If you know of a good one, please drop me a line at jeff.young@chronicle.com.
Students in a computer-science course at the University of Maryland at College Park built a prototype of a Web site that would let students report when a classroom is too hot or too cold. They playfully call it Temper Tantrum — so they do seem to realize that they’re inviting whiners.
The students argue that the service could lead the campus to save money and reduce its energy use. How? Their pitch is that if the site made it easier for students to report overheated or overcooled rooms, facilities officials would be able to respond and cut down on situations in which a classroom is freezing on a summer day because of an overactive (and wasteful) air conditioner. One complaint about a hot room might not warrant action, but if several similar reports rolled in, administrators might want to change a setting. The students even designed a stripped-down version of the Web site that would be easy to use on an Internet-ready cellphone.
Officials at the university applaud the motives of the service, but note that heating and cooling on a campus is a complex issue. John I. Vucci, associate director of HVAC systems for the university, said in an interview that many of the buildings on campus are old and do not allow officials to fine-tune the temperature in different rooms. And even in buildings that do allow variable controls, it is hard to set a temperature that everyone agrees with. He said the university’s newer buildings are energy efficient.
The university already offers a 24-hour facilities hotline that people can call to report climate-control issues or things like burnt-out light bulbs. Mr. Vucci said that the hotline does field at least a couple of calls each day complaining about rooms that are too hot or too cold. He said it is unlikely that the university would switch to a Web-based reporting system for such calls anytime soon, but he said that if the students’ Web site started getting reports, officials might check it periodically to look for trends and to consider system improvements. “It would be very interesting to use as a diagnostic tool.” —Jeffrey R. Young
Categories: Social-Networking, Mobile-College-Apps
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