A group of students at the University of Michigan are trying to bring campus safety into the 21st Century with a new mobile app called
Companion.
The five students began working on the app a few months ago after noticing there wasn't a comprehensive public safety tool that worked with their smartphones.
"It was the culmination of a number of experiences we have had for years," says Danny Freed, co-founder of Companion. "We would get crime alerts that are 12 hours old and useless or there are the blue safety stations that no one uses."
Companion's mobile app harnesses real-time walking data that allows for family and friends to keep an eye on you as you walk home late at night. It matches that data with historical walking pattern and a predictive engine so local campus police can determine the optimal placement of officers.
Companion won the Pryor-Hale Award for Best Business at the
Michigan Business Plan Competition. That came with $20,000 in seed capital. The team, all U-M undergraduates, also won the Most Successful Undergraduate team award for $2,500 as well as the Marketing Award sponsored by Marketing Associates for $2,500.
That $25,000 will go toward further developing the app. A Beta version is currently available in the Apple App Store, but the team is looking to enhance its capability.
"We are continuously adding features," Freed says.
Source: Danny Freed, co-founder of Companion
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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