A new website created by Binghamton University students could ease the hassle of class registration.
Hubcollege.com is designed to allow students to sign up for notifications of open slots in desired classes. The site is currently in beta-testing, which means the current version is not a full release, but a prototype.
Students would have to enter their email address, semester and the course registration number into the website. The site checks the course’s availability every two minutes and sends an email when there is an opening.
The site was created by Oren Rasekh, a junior majoring in computer science, and Alex Ainsberg, a freshman majoring in accounting. They were inspired by a similar but defunct site and decided to create their own version.
“We had heard of a website that used to exist called ‘BU Watcher,’” Ainsberg said.
The duo started work on the site over winter break. They also hosted an early test of the site, which Ainsberg said exceeded expectations.
“[We received] around 500 visits and over 142 requests for course notifications over the course of a few days,” Ainsberg said. “We really just wanted to make sure everything was working and get some feedback from friends.”
Rasekh warned students that there may be trouble with the site during the start of registration.
“The site may be down for the first few days of registration because we are switching web host providers,” Rasekh said.
They are not sure whether they will spread open their website to other schools.
“We have that option, but we want to see how Hubcollege does in Binghamton before we launch in other schools,” Ainsberg said.
Rasekh says that user feedback is essential at the current stage of the site’s development.
“First, we would like to focus on making sure that our product is functioning smoothly before making any additional updates,” Rasekh said.
Kyle Mulligan, a sophomore majoring in Russian studies, said the site could be great for students interested in selective classes.
“It seems pretty nice,” Mulligan said. “It seems incredibly helpful for a class with no openings, or a small class size.”
However, students like Heather Clark, a sophomore majoring in linguistics, have already found some problems with the site.
“There should be something on the site in which to look up CRNs, because it is annoying to open up BU Brain and look up a class,” Clark said.
Students can contact Hubcollege with suggestions via email at theHub@hubcollege.com, or on Twitter and Facebook.