[Plan] Project Proposal - Ucard - Term Paper

Ucard

Niall Yelverton and I have decided to focus on the UCD Ucard for our term paper. 

The Ucard is a student identification card, which uses RFID technology to enable students to access student facilities including libraries, gym & pool, certain buildings.  RFID technology also allows UCD students to pay for items on campus, however payment by Ucard has not been adopted by all campus vendors. 

Plan 

To do a comparative study between the Ucard and other universities in Ireland, for the purpose of this study we will focus on universities and colleges in Dublin. Such as Trinity, DCU etc. 

Using the IDEO method cards we will gather data about the existing Ucard system and then analyse this data focusing on one or two issues and suggest design improvements. 

We are conscience that we are writing this paper for the decision makers in Ucard, so are design improvements will have to be feasible in the real world. 

Talking with the developers of Ucard we can figure out what IT infrastructure is currently in place, who runs the IT infrastructure and what can be changed in the infrastructure. 

Challenge

We have faced one major challenge already. Our main challenge is trying to organise an interview/chat with someone form Ucard, who can tell us about the current IT infrastructure, who runs it and what can be changed.  Getting no response from emails we talked with Ucard directly and are currently awaiting a response.  We will keep you updated. 

Please provide any suggestions or comments about our research proposal.