Imagine this: You’re a new student on LSUS campus, you have five textbooks to buy for your first classes, you’re searching for an apartment to move into, but you need a roommate, you’re wondering what are the best hours to go to the library, and you’re on the lookout for your favorite water bottle you lost at New Student Orientation. Well, all of these problems can now be solved on one website: lsusconnect.com. 

Master students Showrab Habib, Robert Lovelace, and Abid Talukder presented their capstone on their website, LSUS Connect, on Thursday, April 30th. Here they explained how the website works as a type of social media platform for Pilots only, as accounts can only be made with an lsus.edu email address. On the website, there is a social tab, a marketplace tab, a housing tab, as well as a tab for lost and found. 

The social tab works as a place for LSUS students to connect about anything and everything. Tips on a certain professor’s class, who’s going to Spring Fling, questions about campus organizations, and so much more all asked, told, and answered by Pilots. You also get the chance to direct message people. 

The marketplace tab allows people to sell or buy any type of item. But if you’re looking for something specific, no need to fret, the marketplace tab has its own categories of: electronics, furniture, books, home, and other. You can also organize your shopping experience as things for sale, things for free, and things up for a trade. 

The housing tab is a place for Pilots in need of housing to find places to rent, sublet, or stay in with the assurity of another Pilot being involved. Similar to the marketplace tab, under housing you can organize your search by price, rent type, and whether or not there would be a roommate involved. You also get the chance to put an ad out yourself, if you’re looking to rent, sublet, or find a roommate to move in with you. No more sketchy Craigslist ads or last minute hopes to get into our student apartments. 

Finally, there is the lost and found tab. Here, Pilots can report finding lost items as well as report items they themselves have lost, giving people on campus the chance to reunite with a belonging. 

Before now, Pilots at LSUS didn’t have such an easy direct way to communicate with confirmed LSUS students, faculty, and staff. Now, there is a “one stop shop” for anyone on campus looking to socialize, to sell, to buy, to find housing, or to help reunite lost items.

According to co-creator Robert Lovelace, LSUS Connect is in the works to be made into a mobile app. As they form this LLC, it will soon be rebranded to Pilots Connect, and they hope to spread this innovative idea to other universities.

Remember how I first told you to imagine yourself as a new student with all these problems? Well, now they can be solved in one place-- for new and returning students. lsusconnect.com is just one more reason to be proud of our school. Not only because it was created by students, but also because it gives us a chance to connect in an ever growing digital world.