At Poolesville High School in Maryland, two seniors — Eric Huang and Pranav Karthikeyan — noticed the process of submitting requests for maintenance issues at the school was far from efficient.
The students, who are a part of the school’s science, math and technology program, would soon discover a similar story played out at other schools as well — involving either genuine concerns or simple needs like soap in bathrooms. Students would have to go through multiple people before school staff learned about the problem.
“In order to actually communicate that right now to my school, what I have to do is talk to my teacher, who will send an email to the building manager, who now communicates that to maintenance staff,” Karthikeyan said.
“These concerns and these issues pile up over time,” Huang said. “Coming from a neighborhood that’s not necessarily as safe, I really do understand the entire importance of security.”
Over this past summer, they developed a solution, which they call “Ripple.”
“Over pretty much two to three weeks in the summer, we kind of banged out the first (Minimum Viable Product), and we sent it off to a couple friends, and they really liked how all the features looked,” Karthikeyan said.
Ripple is a web-based app that allows students, teachers and parents to report facility issues they encounter, and that information instantly goes to those who can address the concerns.
“We want to democratize the maintenance reporting process through a user-friendly web interface accessible to everyone,” Huang said.
The seniors said Ripple goes beyond just reporting a problem, it can also help school systems prioritize what needs to be done and even develop better systems that may prevent repeat requests in the future.
“A great example of this would be if menstrual products are running out every two weeks, but MCPS is currently on a three-week replenishment cycle, then this is an inefficiency that we must target. But having the data to actually say, ‘Look, we need to replenish our menstrual products every two weeks,’ allows building service managers to make decisions more clearly and more efficiently,” Huang said.
Both said their reporting platform also brings transparency into the process, as those who use it can see what has been reported and the status updates from school maintenance teams and administrators.
The cofounders of Ripple are already in talks with Montgomery County Public Schools and hope to be among the first student-led contracts to be purchased by the school system. They hope starting with MCPS, which they call “the bellwether of technology” among school systems, will allow them to branch out to other counties including Prince George’s and Howard.
“By pushing it through to the biggest school county in Maryland, we hope to spread it to Maryland much easier,” Huang said.
While they would remain at the helm of the company, this is Huang and Karthikeyan’s last year of high school, so they are making plans to pass the torch to younger students.
“We’re able to bring students in with these skills that they pick up through robotics or through school, and then have them work on real-life applications that start making a difference back into the county,” Karthikeyan said.
It wouldn’t be a volunteer position either, the seniors said the contract would cover funds to employ the students that maintain the service.
“As students join the project, they wouldn’t just be volunteering their hours, they would be getting paid somewhat like an internship or an actual job,” Karthikeyan said.
While it is too soon to know if the school system will sign a deal with them, they are hopeful and, at the very least, hope doing this will encourage others to design products and services that help others.
“We hope that through our app, we can set a precedent and blaze the way for other students to be inspired, and make apps out there that can actually help other students,” Huang said.
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