There’s an app for that

For students in UTS Housing, paying rent, lodging maintenance requests and even making friends will soon be in the palm of their hands, thanks to a new mobile app.

In a first for UTS, the Information Technology Division’s (ITD) Application Development and Integration team has developed an app, in-house, that integrates with existing tools and systems to support the 1152 residents currently living at UTS Housing.

Communications and Off-Campus Housing Officer Sophie Erpicum explains, “Finding out what’s happening in their residence, getting important notifications, submitting a guest request, or even finding out who else lives in the same building isn’t always easy and students currently still have to go through websites, social media, reception and more just to get information.”

The app will let UTS Housing residents access everything they need, anywhere, at any time. It has been designed to streamline administrative tasks and enhance the community atmosphere of UTS Housing.  And with international students making up two-thirds of housing residents, the app is set to make a big difference, particularly for those new to UTS and Australia.

“It will be like a home-base so that we don’t have to go searching on Facebook or the UTS website for everything,” says visual communication student and Resident Networker David Simpson.

Erpicum says the app will also “improve the way we communicate with our residents.

“Mobile phones are a big part of students’ lives nowadays so we wanted to embrace that online community and make sure we can get emergency notifications and other important information out to residents through a single channel.”

The UTS Housing app is not only the first native app for UTS, it’s the first time ITD have used the Azure cloud platform and C# coding for a project.

Senior Analyst Programmer Dane Casserly explains the issues with creating an app that can communicate to everybody.

“One of the key requirements for the app was that it had to work on Android and iOS,” he says. “Traditionally, to make that work you have to write two very separate programs, each using their own coded language – it’s like having the same product but one is written in French and one in English.”

With consideration to time and budget, the small ITD team had to be smart about how they moved forward with the development. The solution came through Xamarin – a system that enables developers to write native iOS, Android and Windows apps with just one coding language.

“It’s pretty cool,” says Casserly. “It allows a single person using the Microsoft coding language, C#, to write for multiple mobile platforms.”

UTS Housing residents were involved in the testing and production phases to check the app functioned as it should and to suggest enhancements. Key features designed to help students include a system to find friends based on shared study areas or interests, an event calendar, links to forms and a live news feed.

Says Simpson, “The app will really benefit the life of a resident through the features it provides. I’m really looking forward to using it once launched.”

Erpicum agrees. “Building an app has been a fun and exciting experience. So many enthusiastic people were brought on board. I can’t thank ITD, all the UTS residents and the Housing staff enough for all their involvement, as they have made this project become a reality.”