Campus Team Develops Personal Safety Devices

University Business Magazine, June 2005

J. Barry DuVall is on a mission to make the college campus a safer place. As director of the Technology Advancement Center at East Carolina University (N.C.), he and his team are working on several pilot projects that will give students handheld personal safety devices.

In DuVall's opinion, the handheld devices go one better than the emergency phones prevalent on many campuses. As helpful as such telephones can be, they are limited because they are stationary while students are mobile, says DuVall. And, while cell phone technology may seem to be an easy answer, the carrier signals are not reliable enough in every campus building to be effective, he adds.

That's why DuVall and his team are testing and developing personal safety devices with built-in panic buttons.

One press will alert campus police to a student in danger. Think of this as the student version of the "Help me, I've fallen and I can't get up," button device made popular in a TV commercial some years back.

DuVall says that two murders last spring at University of North Carolina-Wilmington helped him focus even more on his work. His center has already launched a pilot project to protect the students using a growing, but fringe area of the campus, located in the town of Greenville.

The project is called "Warehouse Alert," because this area of campus encompasses old warehouses that are now being repurposed for academic and student use. Throughout the summer, 20 students who walk to and from the warehouse area will test personal safety devices.

The technology involved includes a series of locators installed throughout this campus area. Campus police will know when a student activates a personal safety device. Technology at the police station will be able to pinpoint a student's location so police can send aid. The entire cost for this pilot project is $5,000.

Another pilot focuses on students with disabilities. Blind students, those using wheelchairs, and those with other mobility needs, will carry personal safety devices that can be activated from any part of the campus. DuVall says the devices can do double-duty in all cases, helping to not only communicate who is in danger, but who may need medical assistance.