CSE498, Collaborative Design, Fall 2020
Computer Science and Engineering
Michigan State University

Evolutio is a group of technology professionals convinced that business problems have significantly simpler solutions than the market is led to believe. Evolutio works with the non-profit Elephants, Rhinos and People (ERP), on its #BIKES4ERP initiative. #BIKES4ERP provides bikes to rural students in South Africa.

The bikes provided by ERP help students get to school faster and with more energy to learn. The students that receive bikes from ERP have commutes of up to 10 miles to get to and from school. A bike makes this four times faster and less strenuous for the students.

There are currently hundreds of bikes in use by #BIKES4ERP, and a single mechanic currently handles all bike repairs. As the #BIKES4ERP project continues to expand, the current pen-and-paper method of tracking their bikes becomes less and less viable.

Our #BIKES4ERP Tracking Initiative includes a suite of mobile and web apps that assist teachers, mechanics, and ERP administrators in facilitating and maintaining their fleet of bikes.

The ERP teachers’ Android app is used to log daily bike check-ins and submit maintenance requests for any broken bikes.

The ERP mechanics’ Android app is used to keep track of maintenance requests from teachers, organize the mechanics’ digital inventory, and order any needed bike parts.

The ERP administrators’ web app is an interface for ERP administrators to look at various analytics. The web app uses data from the teachers, mechanics, and schools to show bike performance and data relating to student academic performance to help understand the link between having a bike and succeeding in school.

Our ERP teacher and mechanic client applications are built using Java. The ERP administrator web app uses the ReactJS framework. The apps use Firebase services to store information and handle reliable data sync in poor network connectivity areas.