Engineering students develop rideshare app for U of R students, faculty

Transportation is a common issue for many university students.

That inspired a pair of fourth-year software engineering students at the U of R to design UniGo, a functional rideshare app for students and faculty at the University of Regina.

“We saw and researched some (things) such as people waiting too long for a bus or paying too much for taxi service, so we thought of a new idea to come up with a rideshare app,” said Krupal Patel, one of the developers.

Unigo is intended to facilitate ridesharing and carpooling with students or faculty.

It’s been operational for about a month and its database has identified at least 50 active users.

“We make changes to the application based on the feedback that we get about the user interface or any other ideas that they have for us,” said Krupal Patel.

The development of the app was a journey that took eight months. It was showcased at the Faculty of Engineering’s 24th annual project day, a tradeshow-style event at which students in their final year get to highlight their final projects.

Yash Patel said the design phase actually took longer than the pair had initially expected.

“We got a hands-on idea of how (the) creation of an application and the entire concept of software development will be when we actually leave the university and go out in the market,” he said. “So that was a really rewarding part of it.”

Although the app is fully functional, Krupal Patel said it will likely be shut down once the two wrap up their final semester.