Picture it: on a quiet night, tucked in the lobby of Allison Hall, the Escort Service eases into the 21st century. The phone rings, and instead of reaching for a pencil and scribbling on a messy sheet of paper, a dispatcher breezes through the call with a few clicks of the computer mouse.
It would all be thanks to “TechScort,” a computer program developed by Northwestern students Thomas Peter and Wenhao Liu. The program, devised at the end of Winter Quarter, would allow students to check wait times for the service online and dispatchers to field requests more quickly and accurately. Peter and Liu plan to market the software to NU in early April — but administrators have not made a decision about whether to purchase it.
In selling the virtues of the program, Peter said it could provide students with wait times online, helping to free the service’s phone line.
“The biggest complaint is that people can’t get through on the phone,” said Peter, a Weinberg sophomore. “So many people call and ask for the wait time and don’t like it and hang up.”
TechScort features a real-time countdown for the three escort cars. Wait times are automatically adjusted when a person cancels a request or a new request is added.
Morgan Engling said she would use TechScort and wouldn’t bother to call if the wait was too long. She also voiced frustration about reaching Escort Service dispatchers.
“I start calling right when Escort Service starts running,” said Engling, a Weinberg sophomore. “You just have to keep hitting redial, otherwise you can’t get through. It’s impossible.”
The service runs nightly from 9 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Students can ride by calling 847-491-7000.
Peter, who worked at the Escort Service last year, came up with the idea for TechScort at the end of Fall Quarter and discussed the idea with Liu. By the end of Winter Break, Liu had designed a prototype.
“It’s the computer age, right?” said Liu, a Weinberg sophomore. “It’s kind of silly that we’re taking stuff down on paper. It’s a natural evolution for the service.”
Peter and Liu will focus on TechScort’s efficiency in their pitch to the university. They already have the support of William Salerno, the Escort Service student coordinator.
Escort Service administrator Jamie Jimenez said she has not seen TechScort and doesn’t know if NU would invest in the software.
“It’s a very new program and it’s very experimental,” she said. “It might not be about selling it to the university but allowing (Escort Service) to use it.”
