NU Students Collaborate with Downtown Evanston to Promote Local Businesses
New SmartPhone App Delivers Downtown Evanston Passport Offers Digitally
SweetPerk, a student project team in Northwestern University’s NUVention:Web course, announced recently that it is collaborating with Downtown Evanston to introduce a mobile application (app) for the “Passport to Downtown Evanston” program. The app (developed for both the iPhone and Android smart phones) is the brain child of a partnership between students of the university and the downtown Evanston business community.
The free app makes it easy for consumers to find and redeem offers from local merchants who participate in the “Passport to Downtown Evanston” program. After downloading the app, the shopper can browse offers (Perks) from downtown Evanston merchants on their mobile phone. They can easily view a map to locate a merchant.
At the shop, a shopper can redeem their perk just by pressing a “Redeem” button in the app. The Sweetperk team hopes their app will help increase purchases at local merchants and enable business owners to easily analyze their promotions to see which is the most effective. The app will be available for download on May 26, 2011.
SweetPerk is the chosen name of a group of students at Northwestern University who, not knowing each other beforehand, came together to work as a team on a project of their choosing. The team consists of one student from the Kellogg School of Management and five from the McCormick School of Engineering – with a diverse set of majors spanning Biomedical Engineering, to Computer Science, to Engineering Design. The class NUvention-web was recently recognized by Inc magazine as one of the top 10 “Best Courses 2011” in the nation.
“As students, we are more connected and better informed than ever before, but many of us are unaware of promotions currently going on around us – we see this as an opportunity to propagate relevant information” indicated Kalan Kircher, a graduating senior who is a member of SweetPerk. Christopher Francis, a Masters student in Computer Science, chimes in: “fortunately, everyone on the team believes in bringing the power of technology into communities in which we live. So it was easy for us to see the value in working with Downtown Evanston businesses”.
Carolyn Dellutri, Executive Director of Downtown Evanston, “This has been a great partnership between these students and the university. We look forward to continuing this relationship. The Downtown Evanston Passport App also connects the downtown business community to university students, faculty, business professionals, visitors and residents. It creates customer loyalty and helps to keep shoppers and diners spending their money locally.”
The Sweetperk team plans to work in Evanston throughout the summer to improve their app and expand its usage.
SweetPerk Student Team: Austin Asamoa-Tutu (KSM ’11); Phil Dziedzic & Kalan Kircher (NU - McCormick ’11); Matthew Gilk, Najim Yaqubie (NU-McCormick ’13), & Christopher Francis (NU-McCormick ’12).
For more information please contact Austin Asamoa-Tutu at aasamoatutu2011@kellogg.northwestern.edu or Carolyn Dellutri, Executive Director, Downtown Evanston. info@downtownevanston.org.