"campus-connect app" at NIT-K

"campus-connect app" at NIT-K

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, June 29, 2015: An student has seamlessly merged college campus apps to bridge the gap between students to allow easy exchange of ideas.  The Android app ’NIT-K Connect’ is available on Google Play store. The app was developed by Aayush Agrawal, a Bengalurean, who is in his final-year B.Tech (chemical engineering) at NIT-K, Surathkal.

The National Institute of Technology Karnataka has over 4,000 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate student populations. The 30-plus student societies or clubs host various events, competitions and talks for the students.   The information is not effectively passed on to these NIT-Kians, which results in students being unaware about various opportunities they can discover in college and thus lose out on the experience.

Agrawal, the developer of this app, said: "Currently, news is spread disproportionately through WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages. Physical bulletin boards are not viewed due to mobile technology." It is expensive to print posters and they are often taken down by vandals, he said, adding that’s how the app idea cropped up.

Agrawal observes the app has made it easy for student societies to spread information, organize it and get students engaged in college activities. The simple user interface has been appreciated by users and club conveners alike. He added: "We have built a website with a sign in for the club conveners to push news, event details, pictures and even live news updates. This makes the process automated, safe and efficient. The students receive a push notification for clubs and societies which they are interested in following and do not have to worry about asking around for upcoming events. We are soon releasing a mobile friendly website so that anyone may view the content.  This entire initiative has been taken up by NIT-K students on their own.  

The technical support team consists of Chinmay Deshpande, Giritheja, Rohit Chandramohan, Sriram Rao and Sushant Dinesh, and the marketing team consists of Ansu George, Meghana Potta, Pratham Pramod and Sai Reddy. Agrawal explained that the online website allows all club conveners and student council president to post information on their own.

They are given unique IDs. The marketing team also works with clubs to ensure all news is posted on the platform. Some  still use traditional methods, but they will use this once they observe this allows them to effectively gain better reach in the campus.  Work is on to make it available to all mobile platforms soon.  Plan to further develop the app to make it the standard campus community app for all college campuses a round India is an aim.