UTASC
UTA Summer Camps & Conferences
Timeline
Fall 2018 – Spring 2019
Students
- Pavanaj Biyani
- Robert Brady
- Brandon Chase
- Kartik Gupta
- Nicholas Reimherr
Abstract
UTA Summer Conferences hosts close to one hundred camps every summer but due to loosely tied applications and human error, the organization has estimated $50,000 in a revenue loss of per summer. By providing a streamlined complete solution to manage all the tasks, from requesting to host a camp to managing to billing, Summer Conferences will reduce their losses, improve efficiency, and increase their professional appearance. Our team’s mission is to migrate Summer Conferences from their old processes rooted in Google Sheets to a full stack web application that can be accessed from any networked device. This application will manage most areas that Summer Conferences needs such as contract details, registering camps, managing rosters, checking in campers, checking out equipment, parking, checking out campers, and finally billing. A major aspect of the system will be its usability and its efficiency to interact with custom-made API requests.
Background
The University of Texas at Arlington hosts summer camps during the summer months of May, June, July, and August ranging from organizational to religious camps. To register, accommodate their stay, and bill these camps, all their data is stored on Google Sheets in a variety of tabs. This includes contract information, rosters, checked out equipment, stay duration, parking, work orders, and billing. By manipulating permissions to establish a five-tier hierarchy, that of administrators, professional staff, residence directors, resident assistants, and camp coordinators, where each group has different permissions within the set of sheets. Since the data stored in Google Sheets is not covered under FERPA, it can be legally stored in this public manner but is encountering several issues.
First, there can be upwards to thirty employees, masked behind their respective titles, touching the Google Sheet without individually identifying themselves. Therefore, data can be edited and deleted at whim without knowing who was responsible for it. Second, human error has led to an estimated loss of $50,000 over the past three months. This includes incorrect check-in/check-out dates for campers, forgetfulness in duplicate manual entries, and an inability to utilize all open residence hall rooms. Third, staff members are triple checking both the inputted data in Google Sheets and their hall cards, keys and temporary cards to ensure that they are in order whereas most of these processes can be automated. Lastly, the administration spends several hours a week managing permissions for each sheet (it is not unusual to have up to 15 sheets per camp), ensuring that the five-tier hierarchy remains in place for each camp. The business case for this system will begin when a camp requests to stay at UTA.
The gathering of basic information, such as the number of bed spaces, duration, extra meeting spaces, dining, linens, etc., will be collected. Upon preliminary approval, legal paperwork will need to be filled out that outlines a contract between the camp director and UTA. Just prior to the camp arriving, the roster including all names of the campers will need to be uploaded. On check-in, campers, camp counselors, and camp coordinators will need to be assigned to a specific bed space, given a respective magnetic strip card and hard key for their room and accommodate parking. It is possible that during a stay, a maintenance emergency happens such that multiple campers may need to move rooms and a work order needs to be submitted. Additionally, campers may want to check out recreational equipment for billiards, table tennis, or video game consoles. If any of these items are damaged or lost, these details should be noted. Upon check-out, all magnetic cards, hard keys, and cardholders need to be returned and assessed for damages. Any keys lost or damaged should be noted for billing purposes. After a camp has completed their stay, the used rooms need to be checked for any damages, cleaned, and finally set back up for the following camp. Any damages found inside the rooms will need to be noted for billing purposes.
Finally, once it is time to bill a camp, a grand total will be calculated from the number of used bed spaces, their duration, parking, damaged equipment, damaged cards, extraneous meeting spaces, dining, linens, etc. If desirable, a payment confirmation can be uploaded for filing purposes. This project will add tremendous value to UTA Summer Conferences, allowing for less human error, increased efficiency, eliminating several manual processes, and increasing UTAs professional public appearance. As this project will come at no charge to their organization, Summer Conferences is excited to have a custom system that will accommodate all of their needs.
Project Requirements
- UTASC shall allow Summer Conferences staff to submit requests for an account with their UTA email
- UTASC shall allow Camp Representative to submit requests for an account with their personal email
- UTASC shall allow UTA Summer Conferences to accept or decline a request to host a camp
- UTASC shall enable users to view the floor plan of every res hall hosting a summer camp
- UTASC shall maintain records of keys/cards for every res hall hosting a summer camp
- UTASC shall allow users to create/edit/delete a camper within a roster for a camp
- UTASC shall allow users to move campers in a roster for a summer camp
- UTASC shall allow the camp to add campers to rosters for their camp
- UTASC shall allow the camp to view the floor plan for that camp
- UTASC shall allow the camp to view their contract and request to change a contract
- UTASC shall allow users to check out temp keys for campers who have permissions to do so
- UTASC shall allow admins to activate/deactivate other users of the system
- UTASC shall interface with card readers swipe and read card information directly in the system
- UTASC shall be accessible from any browser location
- UTASC shall enable RDs/Admins to create new projects for RAs
- UTASC shall provide RDs with project sheet templates so that they can create project sheets for RAs
System Overview
To solve the problem, our solution will be divided up into three parts: a database, an API to expose the database, and a frontend to consume the API. The frontend will encompass all parts of the camp process from the beginning contract to the final billing. At first, camp coordinators will be able to request to host their camp at UTA and if accepted a contract will be sent for them to sign. Basic details will be gathered such as how many bed spaces are needed, dining options, meeting room options, and hall preferences. After these details are finalized, the administration will be able to set the roster, assign campers to rooms, and check them in by giving them a key for their respective room. Parking accommodations would also be logged and sent to UTA Parking at check-in. During a camps stay, a camper or camp coordinator is allowed to check out recreational equipment for billiards, table tennis, etc. which will be logged and tied to a campers profile. If at any point a camper loses their card or hard key, a temporary card can be issued and tracked until it is returned either before or at check-out. If during a campers stay a room becomes uninhabitable due to a maintenance emergency such as a water leak or bed bug infestation, the system will accommodate a room transfer, allow a work order to be submitted, and finally tracked until the requested action is completed. At check-out, all keys will be tracked and any damages to either the card, cardholders, or hard keys including their inability to be returned due to being lost will be logged. After the camp has left, the administration will be able to generate a billing report that will pull information for how many bed spaces were used, how many meeting spaces were needed, number of parking permits submitted, damaged equipment, damaged or lost keys, etc. for a grand total that can also be edited.
Various needs will also be met such as creating or editing positions such as a resident assistant, conference assistant, residence director, etc. Their respective permission can be edited at any time to create a hierarchy of access levels. Also, a schedule can be viewed for each hall as to which rooms are being used and at what times.
Results
The success criteria can be gauged by the following statistics. Currently, approximately $50,000 in revenue loss is bared by the university every year. A major success would be to turn that loss into a profit over time because of our solution, known as UTASC. The staff working in Summer Conferences also work additional hours during the summer than a typical work day, some averaging over eighty hours per week. Thus, a reduction in the amount of time administration, conference assistants, and resident assistants have to spend on redundant tasks would be a UTASC success. Currently, there are around one hundred summer camps that UTA hosts over the summer through Summer Conferences. Increasing that number substantially over time would show how well UTASC is being received by the end users and streamlining the complete process of reserving a spot at UTA Summer Conferences.
Upon completion of the prototype system, we expect the following success indicators to be observed by the university implementing the new web application:
- 50% reduction in losses bared by the university
- 20% reduction in average man-hours spent by staff during the peak season
- 30% increase in the number of summer camps coming to UTA Summer Conferences
Within 6 months after the prototype delivery date, we expect the following success indicators to be
observed:
- An additional 50% reduction in losses bared by the university
- An additional 30% reduction in average man-hours spent by staff during the peak season
- An additional 20% increase in the number of summer camps coming to UTA Summer Conferences
Within 12 months after the prototype delivery date, we expect the following success indicators to be observed:
- Expansion of the system to other universities
- Porting of the system to additional hardware platforms, such as Android and iOS apps
- Attracting more than 110 summer camps to UTA Summer Conferences
Future Work
- UTASC shall allow users to create reports on past camps
- UTASC shall allow users to maintain a communication log for every res hall
- UTASC shall allow the staff to view a snapshot of a camp in the system
- UTASC shall allow Camp Representatives to track and review the progress of their camp
- UTASC shall allow an RA/OA to record and upload a video of a room
- UTASC shall be able to calculate project points for RAs and maintain a record of On-Calls and Projects for the whole summer
- UATSC shall give the RDs a drop down of staff working in that building so that they can assign projects to them
- UTASC shall allow users to search for a query in a comm log based on a “hashtag”
- UTASC shall allow staff to deal with International student housing over the Summer
- UTASC shall enable users to submit/view work orders for Facilities management system
- UTASC shall allow users to submit work orders to replace/make new keys
- UTASC shall allow users to delete a summer camp from the system
- UTASC shall allow the cleaning supervisor to maintain a list of clean rooms
- UTASC shall allow admins to view the past history of the camp and take notes of major activity
- UTASC shall allow admins to attach external addendums to a contract
- UTASC shall show alerts for upcoming camps to admins
- UTASC shall allow staff to upload pictures for a room for short inventory
- UTASC shall allow the cleaning supervisor to check the status of the current cleaning project
- UTASC shall allow users to attach external files to their portal
- UTASC shall show RAs/OAs about their upcoming projects on their home page
Project Files
System Requirements Specification
Architectural Design Specification
References
[1] Abacre hotel management system reviews and pricing – 2018.
[2] Bosscars | parking permit software.
[3] Equipment rental software and mobile app.
[4] Guesttracker hotel property management software.
[5] Kwhotel reviews and pricing – 2018.
