Presenter : Pasindu De Silva

Type: Oral

In this study a mobile application aimed at assisting university students of SLIIT to find nearby useful places and socializing with friends based on location is designed at developed.  SLIIT, the main nan-public university of the country is located in Malabe, Sri Lanka and majority of students joining are from different areas of the country so initially they find difficult to move around and adopt in the new environment. Though there are common mobile directory services, the specific student requirements are not met and this application is designed to address this issue. When designing, the common requirements of students are considered and what and how they seek for information is analyzed. Accordingly the data required and the search criteria are designed.  User can either search by name if they know the name or search by categories, sub categories and nearby suburb with customized search distance. OSM data is used as the basis and downloaded data is used in the local database with additional details such as shop descriptions, opening times etc. When visualizing the data real time OSM is also used. It is developed as an Android app with PHP, JQuery mobile, Leaflet Map viewer, OSRM API for route calculation, Apache web server and MySQL as the database server. Search functions are implemented as smart queries to provide better user experience.  In the socializing component, facility to creating social circles of friends is provided.  Location based searches for nearby friends, connect with friends in a circle such as project group with customized distance based search is provided. An administrative panel is created for updating information and possible extension of the system as a commercial application. The application is available via Google play store.