Exactly how far is the walk from Denton Hall to Susquehanna Hall? What is the best way to get to the Stamp Student Union? Freshmen have long been asking these questions, but for the first time students can find the answers by accessing a website called TerpNav (www.map.umd.edu).
TerpNav was developed by a team of Gemstone students called Finding Alternative Special Travel Routes and a group of computer science students called Software Engineering at Maryland.
TerpNav is an interactive map of the campus where users can click on desired start and end points and the map will give them pedestrian routes and an estimated travel time, much like the website MapQuest.
The FASTR team focused on the wheelchair-using community for this map because they are “more affected by changes in their environment,” senior mechanical engineering major and FASTR team member Jake Cigna said. In addition to providing precise directions along campus sidewalks, the user can also request directions to avoid construction and steep hills and to find curb cuts.
FASTR decided to focus on wheelchair access because “it was more focused on the community and a service that didn’t exist,” said senior mathematics major Laura Slivinski, who is also on the Gemstone team.
While the map was made with wheelchair-users in mind, it has been a great tool to new students at the university.
“It was pretty useful,” freshman chemistry major Akshay Gandhi said. “I knew where the basic buildings were like Stamp, but I didn’t really know where a building like Martin Hall was, so it was really useful in figuring those things out.”
This is the first map of its kind at the university, and students are very appreciative of the services it offers because, unlike the university maps, “it has all the walking routes and not just streets,” said freshman neurobiology and physiology major Theresa Chea.
The Gemstone team did a great deal of legwork to get their system up and running. They walked the campus, noting steep hills to avoid, checking to see if the paths based on previous campus maps were correct, and advertised their project.
FASTR, comprising 11 seniors, came up with the concept during the second semester of its freshman year. Since then, the group has been bringing the project to fruition. The team designed the map, and their group mentor, professor Jim Purtilo, paired it up early on with SEAM to develop the software and program the map. SEAM is an undergraduate program that pairs upper-level computer science students with other outside clients that might benefit from their expertise.
SEAM and FASTR designed the map to be a wiki map. With a wiki, like Wikipedia, anyone can edit or input information into the system to update the map. The idea behind it is that if there is a new construction project on the campus, students can input the information and users can avoid that route to class.
The Gemstone team members are the only ones who can add or change information on the map right now but users can report any errors and the team will evaluate the error. Cigna said he hopes the map will eventually be self-sustaining, so users can continue to use and update the map once the team members graduate.
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