News

Alum launches campus info app for iPhone use

In print | September 3, 2009

iSwat, the convenient new iPhone application designed for Swarthmore students, puts useful campus information in users’ pockets.

Matthew Thomas ’09 created the app to give back to the college. “I thought it would be a useful tool for students, and I would have enjoyed having it when I was a student,” Thomas said.

The app provides students with a suite of convenient tools and provides visitors to the college with frequently requested information. For students, iSwat features a faculty directory, a campus events guide, an interactive map that gives the user’s location, emergency information, the dashboard’s Tripsaver, the Sharples’ menu, job listings and a listing of local restaurants. For visitors, iSwat provides tour times, admissions statistics and a link to application information. The application is available for free from the app store.

Thomas, who took eight months to design iSwat, said that he invites students to give him suggestions so he can make the app more helpful. Though the app has detailed information about the college, it is not officially affiliated with Information Technology Services or the college.

Although the app originally cost $9.99, Thomas said that he made the app free to help out the students and the college. “Students shouldn’t have to pay for the app when they’re already paying gobs of money for tuition,” he said. He added that he can make this design financially feasible by creating similar apps for universities across the country.

Student reactions have been positive. iSwat downloader Jamie Birney ’10 called it a “super dashboard on your phone.” He said that the app could have helped him his freshman year.
“The restaurant listing is amazing because it has the restaurant phone numbers on it, so [students] no longer need to look them up,” he said.

Birney said that he thinks first-years, visitors and new college members such as Rebecca Chopp will use it most.

According to ITS, 14 percent of campus registered an iPhone or an iTouch last year. Incoming first-years and new purchases could increase this figure. As BoCoSoft, a mobile software development company created by Thomas, grows, he hopes that iSwat will also be downloadable for the Blackberry.

Since the app was released a week ago, roughly 200 users from 25 different countries have downloaded it. Seven users gave it the average rating of four out of five stars.

In the future, Thomas hopes that iSwat will feature student club information with meeting times, a Phoenix portal, a library search tool and a student directory. Moreover, he would like iSwat to have a calendar import feature, where students will be able to transfer events from the college’s calendar and their personal schedules to their iPhone calendars.

While Thomas claims that iSwat is his best work so far, BoCoSoft has produced a few other apps. The majority of these apps allow people to send text messages or photo messages for free via Gmail. Other apps include iUnitedStates, a database of fun facts about every U.S. State, and World News, a constantly updated database of worldwide newspaper articles.

Though iSwat is certainly a novel tool for Swarthmore students, the idea of a college specific iPhone app is not a new one.

Other colleges such as Duke, Stanford, Texas A&M and University of California San Diego also have their own apps.