Computer Science Students Build New Platform for Know Your Well Data Collection

As Know Your Well (KYW) continues to grow and add more schools and student scientists, new funding provided by the Nebraska Environmental Trust has been dedicated to building a brand-new progressive web application (PWA) to improve the data collection process. A senior design team with UNL’s School of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) has been working with the KYW research team throughout the fall semester to design this custom system. The PWA allows schools to access their information on computers, tablets, and mobile devices regardless of differences in operating systems. While still in its initial testing phase, this app is being designed to make gathering and reporting information easy and intuitive for school groups, whether it's their first time in the program or they've been participating since the beginning. Additionally, the app auto-captures GPS and time stamp data and will have the capacity to store it locally. This function is especially important as students often visit wells and record data in areas without mobile data coverage. As soon as the device reconnects to Wi-Fi, the stored information will be uploaded to the research database, ensuring accuracy and consistency of geospatial information. The CSE senior design team is currently on schedule to release the app for program use towards the end of the spring semester in 2023.