Date of Graduation

5-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Computer Science and Computer Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Patitz, Matthew

Committee Member/Reader

Nelson, Alexander

Committee Member/Second Reader

Gauch, Susan

Abstract

The Office of Sustainability at the University of Arkansas identified that building occupants that have control over operable windows may open them at inappropriate times. Windows opened in a building with a temperature and air differential leads to increased HVAC operating costs and building occupant discomfort. This led the Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities at the University of Arkansas to propose the construction of a mobile application that a building occupant can use to make an informed decision before opening their window. I have formulated a series of research objectives in conjunction with the Director of the Office of Sustainability and my thesis advisor, to determine what precursive steps I would need to take before I could begin development of the application. I was able to resolve each prerequisite research objective with the assistance of HVAC staff, the Entegrity Energy Partners. Following the conclusion of the preliminary investigation of the mobile application, I started development of the project. I constructed a mobile-forward web application to meet the needs of the Vice Chancellor of Facilities. This web application supports user authentication, organization and space creation, user lookup of an organization and space, and a notification system all while maintaining a modern user interface, thoroughly secure backend services and adherence to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines [30] to support a quality user experience. I had the intent to support the deployment of the application with the Office of Sustainability, but due to the considerable time required to resolve several administrative details I was unable to release the project with the Office of Sustainability. Another student or developer could resume this project and release it. They could then research and iteratively refine to uncover the fruitfulness of such an application.

Keywords

operable windows notifier; mobile application; internal deployment; public source code

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