University of Wollongong students Veronica O'Gorman, Jake Shelley, Andrew Booth and Joseph Pons with the iPhone app they've designed. Picture: DAVE TEASE
With more than 70 buildings in no set sequence and a sprawling campus, it's never an easy task to find a particular room or point of interest at the University of Wollongong.
From next year though, a new student-designed iPhone app called UOW Finder will help students and visitors navigate their way around the main Keiraville campus.
A group of four information technology students - Joseph Pons, Jake Shelley, Veronica O'Gorman and Andrew Booth - has designed the user-friendly app which will now be submitted to the Apple store.
Mr Pons, 21, said he hoped the application got the OK for it to be be working at the start of the new semester next year.
"One of the disability services officers at the university initially came up with the idea of an iPhone app to help people with a disability navigate the campus using lifts and ramps," he said.
"We took that idea and expanded on it, so that it also mapped rooms, faculty offices, services, retail outlets and other points of interest around campus."
Mr Pons said the app would be of great value to visitors and guests to the university and newly enrolled students, while it could also help those who had been on campus for some time.
"Even students and staff sometimes have difficulty finding a particular room - especially when they're in a hurry," he said.
"You are familiar with those buildings and rooms you go to frequently, but you can come unstuck when you have to go to a different area.
"Plus this will help you identify points of interest like bike racks and parking, toilets and ATMs, which can be particularly useful."
A university spokesperson said buildings were initially numbered by the order in which they were positioned from the front to the back entry.
However as the university has expanded, the sequencing has become a little more ad hoc - so building 67, for instance, is situated adjacent to building 22 on one side and building 36 on the other.
The UOW Finder app, which will be free to download, will be available in early 2013.