UWSP student, teacher developing safety app

STEVENS POINT – A new app being developed by a University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point student and a UWSP staff member will help students track the location and safety of classmates when they're out on the town.

Drew Frisk, a former UWSP student who now teaches at the university and develops apps for Berkshire Hathaway, is working with Jenna Furger, a UWSP senior and co-founder of the Bring a Buddy plan, to conduct the first beta test of the smartphone program.

It works like this: Students download the app on their Android phones (an iPhone version is coming, too) and log on via Facebook. Students can then add friends who also have the app and are Facebook friends to their circles. While students are out and about, they can locate other friends in their circles on a map and see where they are, and track whether they made it home from a bar or party safely.

The app is the next evolution in the Bring a Buddy program, which is designed to encourage students to keep and eye out for one another. It was started by Furger and the parents of Eric Duffey, a student who drowned in the Wisconsin River the night of his 21st birthday in March 2012.

Organizers of the Bring a Buddy campaign hope the app can stop something like that from happening in the future. The campaign already has given out bracelets with the number of a cab company on the back, sponsored speaking events by Eric Duffey's parents Joan and Daren Duffey, and distributed napkins and coasters at local bars with the cab phone number on them.

UW campuses across the state have been contacting Furger to get involved, Furger said.

"We were so overwhelmed with people wanting to be a part of this that we didn't have enough hours to keep up," Furger said.

But first thing's first, Frisk said — the app has to work. Frisk said he and Furger plan to gather as many as 30 students to test the app during homecoming, the weekend of Sept. 27.

The test will let Frisk work out the bugs and polish some of the special features before releasing the app. Nothing about the program is specific to UWSP; it could be used by anyone throughout the country, he said.

Frisk and Furger said they hope to roll out the app by late October or November.

B.C. Kowalski can be reached at 715-345-2251. Find him on Twitter as @BCreporter.