It’s surprising how the most unexpected moments can be the most life-changing, and no one knows this better than biomedical engineering senior Jonathan Peterson. Killing time between classes in a visitor’s center break room used by University Ambassadors, Peterson was speaking with his friend Stefano Montali about entering Proving Ground again like he had the previous year. Proving Ground is USC’s annual entrepreneurial competition that awards several monetary prizes for student business ideas. Fellow Student Ambassador Parker Moore overheard the conversation and approached the two with an idea of his own. His suggestion formed the basis of what would become their Utrack app, designed to streamline the university student experience.
The Utrack team is comprised of four USC students: Chief Operating Officer (in charge of the programming of the app) Jonathan Peterson; Chief Marketing Officer Stefano Montali; Chief Executive Officer Parker Moore; and Chief Financial Officer Jon Rice. The group took their idea to Proving Ground and came away with the $3,000 Fan Favorite award. With the aid of their prize money, the four Gamecock students began the process of turning their hypothetical business into a reality. This is no simple task, especially for Peterson, who, in addition to his programming, works 20 hours a week at an internship and attends biomedical engineering classes.
The app aims to amass all the information important to student life into one convenient spot. The homepage will have a scrolling ticker that lists events around town and club meetings that interest each student. The calendar is central to the app, automatically adding a student’s class schedule along with club meeting times and alerting the student of any potential conflict. In addition, the app will help provide directions to buildings on campus, and in future plans, the app could include access to student ticketing services, alerts for class cancellations and a schedule for the university shuttle service. The company is talking with the university and preparing to finish a beta version to show this semester with some provisional plans for a small rollout in the fall through University 101 classes.
Another big feature the app will include is a system designed to help students find clubs and organizations that line up specifically with their interests. “There are something like over 400 clubs at USC, and I think I know 10 of them,” says Peterson. “I want people to be able to use this app and put in their interests, like, say, ‘I like coffee, journalism, and baseball,’ and then the app would tell them when the next baseball club meeting is and when tryouts are.” Utrack is designed to make student life simpler by ensuring that the information necessary for classes and extracurricular activities is easily available, but it’s also about helping students create experiences and develop bonds that are integral to a four-year university.
