New app helps UMD students find friends in McKeldin Library
Just drop a pin and find your study buddies
Two University of Maryland students teamed up to create an app that helps you find your friends in the library – it’s called inPin.
inPin officially launched Nov. 3 and, according to Zack Fishbein, one of the app’s creators, hundreds of students have already downloaded it.
Fishbein said he came up with the idea last fall and decided to take action in spring of this year.
“I’m an aerospace engineering major, so I’m always meeting my friends in different spots around McKeldin, and we would need to explain to everyone in the group where we were sitting,” he said.
Zack Fishbein is your guide straight to your friends hidden in Mckeldin
“We’d say, ‘go to the 6th floor, make a right out of the stairs, go down the hall, make a left, and I’m behind the second plant’ – we always got lost.”
He started developing the app with sophomore computer science major Cassidy Laidlaw after they found each other through VentureStorm – a website that allows you to connect with developers on campus.
It provides a complete map of the inside of McKeldin, and allows you to navigate floors by pressing the white up and down arrows. All your friends have to do is drop a pin on their location, and you’ll be able to find them.
Fishbein described the app as “simple” and told The Tab the name inPin came from the term “indoor pin.”
“It’s easy to say, looks good, and communicates the app’s main function: indoor location,” he explained.
The app is only a month old, but Fishbein said they’re already making improvements, like adding a search option, updating the floor maps, and making it Android-compatible by spring semester.
UMD Senior Pete Riz downloaded the app after seeing it advertised in the library, and said he tells everyone about it.
“I always have the problem of not being able to find people in the library when I need to, so this app is definitely a timesaver,” he said.
So far the app only maps out McKeldin, but the pair is working on expanding its services to other campus buildings in the near future.