The student-led club and organization Coding Hub held a launch event to promote its release of the shuttle bus app called Shuttler that will allow SUNY Plattsburgh students to track the shuttle with their phones. The event was held in the Center for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of the Angell College Center Nov. 26.
According to the Coding Hub’s Shuttler website, it is a student-led club and organization that was founded in Sept. 2018. The club is dedicated to developing software solutions, web and mobile applications. These applications are developed with the aim of improving services on campus and making students’ lives easier.
The creators of the app, William Vo, Nguyen, Gonzalo Reyes, Swornim Barahi and Khanh Le acknowledged the unreliability of the shuttle as of late. One attendee of this event stated that sometimes she would wait for long periods of time for the shuttle, but it would never come due to the switching of drivers. Vice President of the Coding Hub Hung Nguyen said stories like this is what encouraged them to create this app.
“It’s basically from our struggle of using the shuttle,” Nguyen said. “Sometimes it’s late: sometimes it doesn’t come. Most of the time it’s very cold outside, and we don’t want to stand outside all the time waiting for the shuttle.”
Nguyen explained how the app provides real-time tracking so students can make sure they will not miss the shuttle and plan their time accordingly. Students have the option of turning on their notifications in the Shuttle app to be notified for when the bus is near. It took the coding hub about nine to 10 months to make the app. Coding Hub President Reyes said the requirements and how the app functioned was an important part in how this app was created, and was one of obstacles he and his other club members faced while creating this app.
“In order to get [the app] approved [it was difficult] because we had to redesign and rebuild the application many times because there were some requirements or privacy concerns that the university had,” Reyes said. “We had to address those things in order to provide a good and safe application for the students.”
The Coding Hub expressed its plans to make the app better and better as time goes on. Currently, the app only provides simple tracking for the shuttle. The coding hub said as more students use the app, the further they will go in adding more features to accommodate it to students’ standards. This is the first time the app is being used, so they expressed that when they see how the app functions in real time while hearing students’ feedback, they will make conclusions on what can be improved on.
For students wishing to learn more information about the coding hub and its Shuttler app, they can visit coding-hub.com and psushuttle.com.
