About the Company

Yale University is an Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States.  The department of Architecture was established in the School of the Fine Arts in 1916 and in 1959 the School of Art and Architecture was made a fully graduate professional school. In 1972, Yale designated the School of Architecture as its own separate professional school.

The
Problem


A retiring Dean at the Yale University School of Architecture was in charge of class registration for over 20 years. The Dean created a series of Excel documents as well as a manually intensive survey and assignment process that was responsible for placing students in the right class with the right professor each semester. The manual process would take into consideration a student’s requirements, course-load, prerequisites and availability while allowing each student to rank their choices in order of importance. Course registration was in desperate need of an overhaul as it was complicated, time consuming and error-prone.

The
Solution


KnockMedia created a new web app that replaced the existing Excel-based process.  Students, faculty and administrators now have a website where they create their course schedule prior to the start of each semester.  The Excel-based logic was turned into an algorithm to determine optimal placement of each student in each class.  Students and faculty can login to the new web app with their existing university credentials.  The course registration process, which was once paper-based and took the schools’ Dean 72 hours to complete, is now web-based and can be completed with the click of a button.

web app development company

The
Results


The new software turned an arduous, 72-hour manual process into an accessible, real-time, repeatable experience.  The new web app is more consistent, error-free and can be operated by any one of the designated administrators.  The value of the new system was immediately acknowledged by outgoing Dean and the staff whom nicknamed the system “Serlio” after renowned Italian Architect and Author Sabastion Serlio.  Serlio is estimated to save approximately 500 hours of administrative overhead hours each semester.

Authentication Architecture

Authentication schema

UI Design

web app ranking algorithm
web app ranking algorithmweb app design