The text on this page was automatically translated and hence may differ from the original. No rights can be derived from this translation.
On 7 February, seven students received the certificate 'Successful participation in ICT Lab'. Over the past six months, they have been working on further developing the ShopEase application, a sensor system to map the occupancy of meeting rooms at the Utrecht City Office, and the further development of the traffic data dashboard.
The ICT Lab Utrecht is an accessible R&D ICT environment sponsored by EBU, the province of Utrecht, and CA-ICT.
A brief overview of the three projects:
ShopEase brings the online shopping experience to the city centre
Online shopping has several advantages over traditional shopping; you no longer have to lug around bags full of purchases, and waiting at the checkout is a thing of the past. However, there are also drawbacks to online shopping: how often have you ordered something online and returned it because it didn't look as nice in real life as it did in the webshop photo? Furthermore, online shopping is not as enjoyable as a day out shopping with friends. The ShopEase application offers shoppers the best of both worlds.
Julian, Ferry, and Peter have developed the ShopEase web application into a smartphone app. Through a QR code and barcode scanner, customers can easily add products in the store to an online shopping cart. An initial survey among retailers showed interest: some retailers are eager to have a webshop but simply do not have the time/resources to start one. ShopEase, as a 'white label' webshop, can provide the platform that helps retailers step further into the online world.
How clean is your code?
With the SCRUM method, work is done on separate subproducts in short sprints (several weeks). The advantage of this method is that results are achieved quickly. However, the danger is that there is no reflection on the developed subproducts and whether improvements are possible. Luuk and Bas have worked this semester on restructuring, cleaning up, and documenting the code behind the traffic data dashboard. They have also examined the hosting of the dashboard. The result was impressive: a stable working web application that calls for a connection with even more traffic data from municipalities.
The solution for people who reserve meeting rooms but do not show up
Marvin, Ingmar, and Zakaria have been working on a prototype in recent times that can map the occupancy of meeting rooms. The assignment came from the municipality of Utrecht, where meeting rooms are reserved but sometimes people do not show up. The prototype uses a motion sensor that notifies whether a room is occupied. Combined with the data from the reservation system, it can be determined which rooms are actually occupied, regardless of whether they have been reserved or not.
The students succeeded in measuring movement, but communicating the data to the webservers proved to be a significant challenge. These challenges not only tested the students' conceptual abilities but also their soldering and programming skills. Next week, we will welcome ten ICT students from the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. Through collaboration with the municipality of Utrecht, we expect to carry out some exciting projects within the theme 'cycling in the city'. Innovative themes such as IoT, smart city, and big data play a central role in these projects.
