Sophomores, juniors, and seniors already know the joy of selecting their room for “next year.” And on March 25th the freshmen will also understand how the process works. Although the process is hectic and crazy for students, it is even more chaotic for the staff in Residential Life.

So with the idea that technology is supposed to make life easier (not harder), the folks in Residential Life contacted Information Technology with a request to help put the room selection process online.

Adding this request to the long list of projects could have delayed implementation of this worthwhile idea. Luckily, the IT Programming team hired a talented IT Fellow who has taken this project on and is working to put the room selection process online.

Brian Havlisch, a freshman Computer Science major, joined the programming team as an IT Fellow this year. He has worked on smaller projects for the department that have  included developing programs from scratch and analyzing existing programs to make changes to them--very different skills but both equally important to a good programmer.

Brian learned programming from classes he took in high school and by studying on his own. Working for IT, he is expanding his knowledge of programming and database administration.

Brian’s supervisor, Rachel Rivera, raves about Brian’s ability and his work on this project, especially given the little amount of time he has. In addition to adjusting to college life, taking CS classes and programming for IT, Brian also plays the piano for the Jazz Band. Brian works about ten hours a week but has made a lot of progress in getting this project off the ground. Brian has studied the floor plans of each residence hall in order to create the online room selection program. Indicator lights of green, yellow, and red corresponding to each room in any given building will indicate whether the room is completely vacant, partially vacant, or full. 

Alpha and Beta testing of the Online Room Selection tool will begin later this year and continue through next fall. Rachel hopes that Brian will continue working as a programmer through the IT Fellows program, not only because of his talent but also so that he will be able to continue work on this project as he goes through the process in sophomore, junior and senior years here at Valpo!