CampusFlow

Find your perfect study space on campus.

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Inspiration

As students who recently started college at a new campus, we realized how useful it would be to have a tool to help find where the perfect study spot is for each individual.

Purpose

CampusFlow is a device and an app to help college students find their ideal study space on campus based on:

  • room temperature
  • sound quality (the more hearts, the better!)
  • indoor/outdoor setting
  • lighting
  • amount of through traffic
  • food/drink options nearby
  • amount of outlets
  • whiteboard availability
  • table space

Development

We split up different aspects of the project based on everyone's specialties and skills. We developed the sensor box using the Arduino Intel 101 and a few different sensors that take measurements on the environment. The box sends info to an iPhone app via a Bluetooth LE connection. The iPhone app displays the data and connects it with the cloud. The cloud database was set up using a custom REST API hosted by Amazon Web Services. In the app, you can search for a study space based on whatever filters you choose.

Challenges

We had trouble analyzing the incoming sound data using the microphone and converting it into quantifiable data on sound pollution within the environment. In order to overcome this challenge, we developed a sound processing, running average algorithm to accurately interpret the data. Additionally, we struggled achieving a quick sampling rate but were able to optimize our code in order to create the necessary rate.

Accomplishments

After experimenting with several techniques on processing sound data, we were able to accurately and consistently measure sound pollution within different environments, record the temperature of a given environment, and accept qualitative data from the student through the iPhone app. Furthermore, we connected this data with the cloud in order to create a crowd sourcing platform to provide recommendations for study spaces.

Significance

There are many factors within a given environment that can affect a person's ability to study and focus. Even subtle factors that are hard to notice can affect our ability to be productive. With CampusFlow and the FlowBox, students can accurately analyze which spaces they can work more productively within.

The Future of CampusFlow

We hope to add more sensors that can measure more elements of environments such as air quality. These factors have been shown by research to affect productivity and the ability to focus.

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