GoCampus, a smartphone application created by student Kelvin Tan, helps BYU-Hawaii students find out campus information conveniently. “You can check the Caf menu, find basic information on operation hours, emails, and phone numbers of professors,” said Tan, a senior studying computer science from Malaysia.
Tan said the application was created in October 2016 and has since been downloaded and used regularly by around 100 students. “I can see the statistics to see how many students use it and around 30-40 students download it each day,” said Tan.
The app has six sections for students to use: myBYUH, where students can access their myBYUH accounts; a map that shows where students are and has points on buildings; Indoor Building, which allows users to access maps of rooms and their numbers in each building; Cafeteria Menu, which accesses the Food Services website to show the menu for the week; Wards Schedule, which displays ward details such as names of the bishop, meeting times, location, and ward boundaries; and Useful Numbers, which includes emergency numbers like the on-call nurse and 24-hour security number as well as convenient numbers like the temple.
When asked what makes the app different than the school’s website, Tan said, “ The BYUH website has a lot of information, but you need to be able to know how to get around. I could get around the website pretty easily getting things I need, but not a lot of people could do that – especially those who are not so good on browsing around. goCampus is a compilation of all the information you need.”
Benjamin “Beam” Tan, Kelvin’s wife and a senior studying TESOL from Thailand, said the application is free and useful. “I use it to look at the time when certain departments or the Cafeteria closes. Even though I don’t use it often, I need it to look at information instead of looking through all the websites,” she said.
After seeing how the other BYU schools had their own campus app, Kelvin Tan said he took the initiative to form the application. “I don’t get anything out of it except experience. I’m glad that several people have come up to me to request for android and other business proposals.”
Tan said he does not plan to monetize the app. “Because it’s a free app, I don’t think I am putting as much efforts on it. It will most likely be my experiment in trying new things while I build other paid apps,” he said.
For Tan, making the map in the application gave him the hardest time. “I had to find out the coordinates [like] longitudes and latitudes of specific places, take pictures, and find out information about them by myself.”
Lee Yi Hong, a sophomore from Singapore studying business, said the application is important for campuses. “Sometimes the information on the school website may not be accurate, such as the ward times or meeting place. It is good to have an application that can give us more accurate information.”
The future plan is to have the app update when there are events going on around campus, said Tan.
Beam said she enjoyed watching Tan use his major to benefit others. “When we think of computer science, we may think of games or fun apps. But what he wants to do is make apps that will be helpful and not take time away from family.”
The application can be found in the Apple app store, titled goCampus.
