Developed under the supervision of Coordinator Andreas Kyriacou by work-study students who are now full-time employees with the college’s Systems Integration & Innovation group, the app allows students to use their smartphones to identify open lab space with the appropriate software and hardware to support their study needs, with minimal impact on data plans.
“With the end of the school term approaching, it’s not uncommon to find students wandering the halls looking for open computer labs with the right combination of hardware and software to support their coursework needs,” said Kyriacou. “By identifying available lab space in real time, the new app eliminates that uncertainty and saves students time as they complete final assignments and prepare for exams.”
By providing detailed information about computer lab usage, the new app will also allow for increased efficiencies in lab refurbishments and upgrades.
Future development of the app will include more hardware information, a mapping function that will provide turn-by-turn instructions to guide users to rooms, and a variation that will allow users to search for open Mac computers on-campus, which are often in high demand for specific program uses.
Conestoga Lab Search is currently available for iPad and iPhone, Android and BlackBerry 10 operating systems, and can be downloaded for free from the app stores for the various devices, or from http://www.conestogac.on.ca/mobile/ Versions of the app for Windows Phone, Windows 8 and the myConestoga portal will be available in the near future.
Conestoga’s Systems Integration and Innovation group is currently seeking interested individuals to serve as testers for new versions of the product, as well as for future apps currently in development. Those interested in serving as beta testers can sign up by visiting the website or contacting mobileservices@conestogac.on.ca