Card, mobile credential, payment and security
Robot delivery has arrived at the University of Tulsa after the campus partnered with provider, Starship Technologies. The move reportedly makes Tulsa the first university in the state of Oklahoma to offer robot delivery on campus.
According to a report from Tulsa World, the university has deployed an initial fleet 15 robots, but has left the door open to expanding the initiative to as many as 40 robots. Users order and pay via the Starship mobile app, with each robot delivery carrying a flat delivery fee of $2.50.
“This robot delivery phenomenon has added about 30 colleges across the country and we said, you know, we’d like to be next,” says Matt Warren, Vice President of the University of Tulsa. “TU is a STEM-focused institution, and we are always looking at what’s high tech, what’s new.”
The service will enable students and employees to have meals delivered from select campus eateries to a variety of campus locations, including residence halls and offices. The service works with TU Dining Dollars, the Hurricane Gold Dollar program — a prepaid account students and staff use their via their TU ID card — as well as standard credit cards. The delivery service runs between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. daily.
Warren hopes that demand increases and that more robots could be deployed. An area of Tulsa’s Mabee Gymnasium is already being converted to serve as a home base for the robots. “We’re installing this special robotic garage door that automatically opens and closes so they can file out at 7:00 in the morning, and then file back in at night to recharge,” says Warren.
The service officially launched in late November, and has been met with positive feedback.
“So far, students are loving the convenience,” says Warren. “We had one bad weather day and we got a lot of positive feedback that it’s certainly worth the $2.50.”
The service is currently restricted to campus dining locations only. The robots are capable of operating at a range of up to two miles from campus, a feature that the university intends to leverage going forward.
“We are looking at a phase two where we’d be looping in neighboring eateries, so our students could order from them and have their order delivered via robot to campus,” says Warren.
Grubhub has partnered with robot delivery provider, Kiwibot, and has made the University of North Dakota the pair's first campus client. Going forward, the partnership will provide robot delivery services on college campuses across the United States.
Kiwibot joins Grubhub's existing robot delivery partners, Cartken and Starship. In total, Grubhub is supporting robot delivery on a dozen college campuses across the country.
"When it comes to the campus dining experience, we see robot delivery as a complementary offering to traditional delivery since the robots can navigate hard-to-reach areas on campuses," says Adam Herbert, senior director of campus partnerships at Grubhub. "Our campus partners have been asking for us to help bring this delivery option to their school, and we are excited to partner with Kiwibot to expand this innovative and convenient type of delivery to more colleges across the country."
"Our partnership with Grubhub means we'll be able to provide an integrated delivery service that allows students to experience Kiwibot delivery right from Grubhub's app," says Felipe Chávez, CEO of Kiwibot.
North Dakota students will be able to select robot delivery via the Grubhub app from on-campus dining locations, including the Memorial Union Food court and Wilkerson Dining Center.
The Kiwibots navigate using an autonomous system and can operate in snow and extreme weather conditions. The robots move at walking pace and can hold up to 25 pounds.
"Bringing a delivery service to campus was an offering we've been wanting to provide at the university, and we are excited for this innovative delivery service to become available to students," says Orlynn Rosaasen, director of dining services at the University of North Dakota. "We know just how busy students are, and this type of delivery will provide them with one more option to access food on campus during their busy days."
Grubhub currently partners with more than 250 college campuses across the United States. The company enables students to integrate meal plans directly into their Grubhub account and access restaurants both on- and off-campus for delivery and pickup.
Penn State is enabling students, faculty and staff carrying older versions of the id+ card to use online photo submission to assign new ID photos. The online photo submission push comes ahead of a university wide re-carding event planned for this spring.
According to an official university release, at the heart of the re-carding is the planned move to a mobile credential, and with reader infrastructure on campus now matching that new technology, new contactless credentials will be needed as well.
Anyone who received a new id+ card after May 10, 2022, will not need to receive a new credential. The re-carding effort marks the first time since 2004 that Penn State has reissued its id+ card.
Photos were accepted between November 7 and November 23, with new id+ cards planned for distribution during re-carding events at each of Penn State's satellite campuses during the spring 2023 semester.
Five re-carding events have already taken place this fall at the Dickinson Law, DuBois, Great Valley, Shenango and Wilkes-Barre campuses.
The university offered three primary means to submit a new ID card photo. The preferred method was through the Transact eAccounts Mobile app.
Students who chose this method first download the Transact eAccounts Mobile app from the App Store or Google Play, search for Penn State and click the SSO (single sign-on) login screen. Students then enter their Penn State user ID to authenticate your device, and finally upload the updated ID photo.
Penn State community members were also able to use the Transact eAccounts web portal, or visit their campus' id+ Office to have an updated photo taken by card office staff.
Photo submissions must adhere to the following guidelines:
Hats, sunglasses, hand gestures, and inclusion of other people within the photo are not accepted. The photo should not be cropped.
Email notification will indicate whether the photo is approved or if another photo should be submitted.
Late photo submissions uploaded after the November 23 deadline were not accepted or printed on the new id+ card. Additionally, the university requires a vetting document, or government-issued ID if submitting a photo after the deadline.
A new report compiled by TouchNet is shedding some light on how a number of higher education institutions are deploying ID management technology on campus. The survey was conducted in March 2022, and saw TouchNet poll 150 higher education leaders, including finance or C-suite executives working at four-year institutions.
Among the survey findings was a need and importance for ID technology enhancements:
Respondents also reported their organizations struggling to make data-driven decisions. Respondents stated an interest in using insights gleaned from ID management technology integrations as a means to bring attention to gaps and opportunities that might have remained hidden otherwise.
For more on the TouchNet survey, the full report and infographic summary is available for free download.
In the latest installment of the National Association of Campus Card Users (NACCU) Positive IDentity Blog, Georgian College's Jen McDonald shares an Excel formula that she can't live without. An Excel enthusiast, McDonald works in Georgian College's ONEcard Office and discovered a helpful formula for the job's accounting demands.
"Before I began my role in the ONEcard Office, I had a basic understanding of Excel and primarily used it for data tracking and quick stats," writes McDonald. "Once I joined the card office, and now needed to add accounting tasks to my list of responsibilities, I quickly realized the value of upping my skill level in all things Excel."
The invaluable Excel formula that she now swears by is the VLOOKUP.
"If you’re already familiar with this little gem, then I likely don’t need to tell you how helpful it can be," says McDonald.
For those unfamiliar, McDonald illustrates the importance of the formula.
"I find myself frequently, in fact on an almost daily basis, needing to combine data from two different sets," she explains. "A few examples would be needing to compare a list of registered students to a list of accounts with balances, or perhaps you want to compare data in your test environment to that of PROD."
That, according to McDonald, is where VLOOKUP comes in. She offers some top tips for maximizing the effectiveness of the formula:
McDonald concludes her blog entry by soliciting advice from fellow card office pros for their own Excel formula suggestions. "I would love to hear about it! Okay, maybe love is a little strong, but I would certainly find it interesting."
Transact Campus' Laura Newell-McLaughlin discusses the company's recent acquisition of mobile ordering provider, Hangry, and what the move means for Transact Mobile Ordering and campus commerce.
Hangry specializes in mobile ordering solutions for college campuses, making it a fitting addition to the Transact Campus portfolio. Watch along as Newell-McLaughlin discusses the deal and what campuses can expect from Transact Mobile Ordering going forward.
Penn State is implementing Transact Mobile Credential with its new mobile Penn State id+ card slated for arrival in January 2023. The move will enable PSU students to use their mobile devices to conveniently and securely access campus housing facilities, purchase meals, and more.
According to an official university release, the university is installing contactless card readers and tap-to-pay POS terminals across all 24 PSU campuses in a phased approach. Upgrades to card readers will include exterior residence hall doors, interior residence hall doors, commons buildings, LionCash and meal plans, and on-campus laundry washers and dryers.
"Mobile devices are playing a more significant role in the higher education landscape," says John Papazoglou, associate vice president for Auxiliary and Business Services. "Penn State's continued advancement of student resources is a part of the University's student-centric mission. The mobile id+ card enhances this mission, bringing the University closer to a digital campus."
"The new seamless mobile experience helps increase security for students by allowing them to open their residence hall door lock through their new id+ card or mobile device," says Aliana Steinbugl, director of physical security for Penn State University Police and Public Safety. These enhancements will help make Penn State a more secure University."
Penn State is encouraging students to download the Transact eAccounts app from the App Store or Google Play on their mobile devices ahead of time to be prepared to provision the mobile credential to their device. Students must upload their photo and have the Transact eAccounts app to use the contactless technology after launch day.
A process is already underway to provide new physical id+ cards for Penn State community members, separate from the mobile id+ card launch. Cardholders who received their current id+ card before May 10, 2022, will receive a new physical credential in the spring of 2023.
Physical cards will remain necessary on the Penn State campus, as not all locations will immediately accept mobile-only transactions. Access to select buildings and resources will also still require the physical id+ card to be present during a transaction.
For more information, visit the id+ card mobile page.
Campus credential and payments solution provider, Transact Campus, introduced its newest cloud-native platform, Transact One, earlier this year. Transact One brings the company's Campus ID, Campus Commerce, and Integrated Payments together under a single consolidated ecosystem. The company’s new cloud-based transaction system, Transact IDX, is among the initial solutions that can be enabled in Transact One.
Transact One provides universities with a singular, cohesive experience when accessing an array of applications and services through the tightly integrated single sign-on (SSO) ecosystem. The platform contains many underlying modern shared components that are used across applications to enhance interoperability with fewer required integrations.
The platform features an intuitive, graphical drag-and-drop user interface and preconfigured widgets that allow quick data integrations that are customizable for each university. In addition, Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) supports easy integration for authorized third-party technology partners to extend the full capabilities of the ecosystem.
The platform enables data aggregation across products for easy access to system dashboards for current status updates and a quick view of daily business needs.
When building Transact One, there were features that the company felt were imperative in solving for the next-generation platform. To learn more about the new platform, CampusIDNews recently caught up with Kent Pawlak and Ian Ashworth, two Transact product directors close to the IDX and Transact One projects.
“It’s important to recognize that this product was built on the new underlying Transact One platform,” says Kent Pawlak, Senior Director of Advanced Products at Transact. “There are many benefits to Transact One’s modern infrastructure platform that makes it easy for schools to initially deploy, get the security advancements and responsiveness they expect, and accelerate the rate of innovation.
“Transact IDX product focuses on delivering features such as Stored Value, Meal Plans, and Events and Privileges,” adds Pawlak. “The platform also takes care of underlying technology such as security, business continuity, integrations, and more.”
As Pawlak explains, the future vision of the platform includes providing easy user access to relevant third-party applications through SSO and secure APIs. “Some examples include one-click access to housing information systems, POS solutions, or recreation sports applications directly from links in applications deployed in Transact One,” he says.
Transact also worked alongside its client base to further refine the experience for campuses.
“We received a number of requests for the ability to switch between applications seamlessly,” says Ian Ashworth, Director of Product Management for Transact One Platform and Data Analytics at Transact Campus. “One common theme is the desire for a unified, one-app experience – and that drove the Transact One project.”
Another request, Ashworth says, was seamless authentication.
“We knew we needed single sign-on (SSO) so users would be able to sign in once and then access multiple applications without having to reauthenticate,” says Ashworth. “Users can access all the portals they need and move between the meal plans and payments apps. Transact One enables that interoperability.”
Some clients may not have robust analytics capabilities, so for them we offer a turnkey solution. We also offer the flexibility for campuses to create custom analytic reports.
As part of the platform, campus administrators and faculty have access to Transact Insights, a comprehensive analytic dashboard that can identify trends and provide real-time data access.
“Some clients may not have robust analytics capabilities. For those campuses we offer a turnkey solution, creating dashboards consisting of campus data,” Ashworth explains. “But we also offer the flexibility for campuses to create customizable analytic reports.”
Concurrent with the launch of Transact One was the release of the company’s next-generation enterprise software, Transact IDX. This transaction system offering is the first solution launched in the Transact One ecosystem.
Transact IDX is a modern, mobile-centric solution designed to support stored value accounts, meal plans, event access, door access, mobile credentials, and more. IDX supports a truly cashless environment for students – whether using a physical ID card or mobile credential – for all credential-based transactions.
Transact has delivered enterprise transaction system solutions for over 30 years. IDX began with the goal to provide the most modern, efficient product that continues to meet and exceed client expectations.
Specifically built for higher education, Transact IDX is a cloud-native SaaS solution allowing authorized campus personnel access to everything from a fully accessible responsive design web application.
From a campus administrative perspective, Transact IDX eliminates complex software installation and maintenance. User access is simplified by integrating existing campus identity provider service. Transact provides a highly available solution and takes care of system maintenance, security, and regulatory compliance.
“Transact has delivered enterprise transaction system solutions for over 30 years. Our clients provide excellent feedback on what works and what doesn’t,” says Pawlak. “IDX began with this experience. The goal was to provide the most modern, efficient product that continues to meet and exceed client expectations.”
“The act of eating a meal or washing laundry hasn’t really changed. What has changed is the way campuses provide these services to students and how students expect to consume these services,” adds Pawlak. “A modern, intuitive application with appropriate notifications meets the needs of today’s students.”
Using the platform approach, Transact can accelerate service deployments considerably.
“We can have multiple teams working on different product areas, but the look and feel, the authentication, the APIs are all the same,” explains Ashworth. “By standardizing and making it cloud native, we can bring those features to market much quicker.”
Ashworth stresses that accelerated deployments are not just for Transact, but for partners leveraging the platform as well. “There’s a huge speed advantage having a platform where we can onboard external partners and expand the functionality available to them quicker,” he says. “The pace of innovation can increase.”
Mobile credentials are also central to the Transact One ecosystem and to the IDX software. When a campus implements Mobile Credential, the platform enables students to pay and access what they need by using their phone.
“Mobile credential is natively in the platform, so any applications that you have loaded will work with the phone,” says Ashworth. “And because it is native to Transact One and IDX, the move to mobile credentials for campuses that have the hardware environment to support it is as simple as a flip of the switch.”
Client feedback is instrumental in providing IDX features that are highly desired, easy to use, and in some way make daily life a little better for campus staff and students.
Transact has spent considerable time and resources to build a new highly available platform in the cloud that allows rapid addition of features to that platform.
"It's not by accident that IDX is the first product on Transact One. We have decades of experience in higher education gleaning feedback from users - including administrators and students," says Pawlak. "This feedback is instrumental in providing IDX features that are highly desired, easy to use, and in some way make daily life a little better for campus staff and students.”
For more information on the Transact One platform and Transact IDX cloud transaction system, visit transactcampus.com.
The University of South Dakota added a meal swipe donation program this fall semester to enable students to donate swipes to their peers in need. The university is collaborating with food-service provider, Sodexo, and Swipe Out Hunger on the initiative.
As reported by student publication, The Volante, the Swipe Out Hunger program was built into the university's Sodexo contract and is actively in place across all the South Dakota Board of Regents campuses. Sodexo also offers the initiative at its client campuses nationwide.
At South Dakota, Swipe Out Hunger is administered by the office of the Dean of Students and overseen by the Interim Associate Dean of Students, Kate Fitzgerald.
“Students who are experiencing food insecurity can apply for 10 or 20 swipes in residential dining,” said Fitzgerald in a Volante interview. "If approved, a Swipe Out Hunger meal plan is added to students’ ID card."
Since the Swipe Out Hunger initiative began, South Dakota USD has dispersed 47 meal swipe packages to students in need. Each student is only eligible for the program once per semester.
USD has instituted other programs in the past to help combat food insecurity among its campus community. The university also maintains Charlie’s Cupboard, the USD student food bank. The food bank is open every Thursday and is located on campus. Any student with an active USD ID card is eligible to collect food from the cupboard.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is granting alumni access to select campus buildings via a digital or physical alumni MIT ID card. The new policy took effect in October, and adds a host of benefits in addition to building access.
As reported by campus publication, The Tech, the MIT Alumni ID card enables access to non-residential buildings on campus, provides alumni and one guest free entry at the MIT Museum, as well as enables access at the Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center and MIT Libraries.
Alumni can receive their MIT Alumni ID digitally or have a physical card printed. To receive a digital ID, alumni must login to the Tim Tickets mobile app with their university credentials. Once logged in, alumni can activate their mobile ID, which serves as a digital ID card and can be provisioned to a mobile wallet app.
Tim Tickets is a post-covid visitor pass system instituted to control visitor management on campus. The system is used to give temporary access to campus buildings or an MIT event using a visitor pass called a Tim Ticket.
Visitors may use their Tim Ticket to access campus between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., seven days a week, with the exception of certain time-restricted buildings. A single Tim Ticket invitation is valid for a period of seven consecutive days.
Alumni can also receive a physical ID card by printing one from self-service card printing kiosks across campus by using a QR code found in their Tim Tickets app.
The university invited MIT community members to participate in a survey on campus access in early October to help MIT examine its policies with respect to building access.
The survey included questions on community preferences and safety concerns for a variety of building access scenarios. The scenarios included 24/7 general public access to all non-residential buildings as well as general public access to all non-residential buildings during limited hours.
Building access policies for non-MIT ID holders remain in place, with most campus buildings accessible only with an active MIT ID. Visitors may only enter buildings when escorted by an MIT ID card holder or when using Tim Tickets.
