New Mexico State University Erin Kelly, Computer Engineering Tracking Maker Space Utilization using a Mobile App Rolfe Sassenfeld, PhD, New Mexico State University Patricia Sullivan, PhD, Erin Kelly, Computer Engineering Technology Senior Welcome and thank you for coming today This presentation is based on work done by Dr. Sullivan and myself Also our student Erin Kelly provided app development help

The Aggie Innovation Space started in 2013 to serve the needs of E and I on the campus. The Maker space is available to all majors and disciplines at New Mexico State University

The AIS serves many different clients Student, faculty and staff innovators and entrepreneurs Engineering capstone courses High school middle school and elementary school outreach

In addition to just knowing which projects that the student coops are working on we wanted to know more about who was utilizing the space Who was coming in? How long were they staying? What were they doing? Who were the clients?

We decided to design a custom app to track and log key data with respect to the efforts of the AIS students We wanted a simple and non-intrusive way of gathering data We didn’t want to burden the students with a sign in/sign out sheet

We used a free and simple application development tool AppInventor was developed by MIT to help teach a new generation of programmers how to make Android Apps The AppInventor Android development environment has resulted in Over one hundred thousands apps created so far

AppInventor is simple to use App layouts can be created easily and dynamically AppInventor offers most of the design functionality of more complex development environments However it is easy to use and a quick tool for app creation

AppInventor uses ‘block programming’ to create the functional code that executes behind the design screens. Very complicated code can be created by starting with simple programming blocks and building out the logic Block programming allows only logically functional blocks to connect which helps novices avoid coding errors.

AppInventor also allows live testing of the app Changes made through AppInventor of the code blocks and design immediately refresh on the mobile device This allowed for quick and thorough design testing

The app was wire framed and initially designed by Erin Kelly Erin met with the student workers of the AIS to get their ideas for the app She also consulted fellow students and faculty for additional input

The results was a highly functional app to be used by workers and students in the AIS to record and track the utilization of the maker space

The students of the AIS use the app to log events and workshop attendance as well as the time team members spend in the AIS working on ongoing projects

The AIS App can be customized by the users to add additional projects and reasons for visiting the Aggie Innovation space These are some of the events that are currently being logged by the AIS App Each of these new event types is added into the App’s related database

The AIS App integrates with google docs The data logged by the app is seamlessly uploaded into google docs. The central data repository provided by google docs provides stability and accessibility From google docs the data can be shared, retrieved, and researched.

AppInventor easily integrates with the google doc website to provide access to the stored data. Shown is an sample of the raw data collected by the AIS App and loaded into google docs

The demographic information of the students is not collected directly The student’s ID number is cross-referenced with an institutional database to incorporate the student demographic information. Final reports do not use student names only the AIS visit metadata cross referenced with demographic information

An NFC enabled poster can be used at the entrance to the maker space to remind students to check in. These can be custom made and are simple to implement Place an NFC reader behind a custom made poster

Future improvements will include The app also integrates the NFC capabilities of student’ mobile devices The app sends the data to an NFC reader that is connected to a computer that is also integrated into google docs database

A card reader or swiper can also be integrated into the system This allows students to swipe their ID cards The visit is timestamped and the ID number recorded

The app is being updated and retested as the additional features ae being added. Look for the AIS App soon to be published in Google Play. We will continue to customize the app to better suit the needs of constituents. Thank you! New Mexico State University is all about discovery