A Cal Poly student has created a new Web service that aims to make registering for classes a little easier.
PolyRegister.com, a site created by Dave Patierno, is an automated system in which students give the Web site their information and it registers for them. “Waking up at 7 a.m. so you don’t have to” is the site’s slogan.
“It seemed like there were so many people who were either at work or going to class or who just didn’t want to get up when they had to register,” Patierno said. “This is for them.”
How the site works is a user creates an account on PolyRegister.com, then creates a schedule on POWER. The user then inserts the schedule into the site, adds secondary choices in case the first are full, and the site automatically registers for the user when his or her time comes up.
Patierno, a computer engineering sophomore, created the site over summer and tested it during fall registration. His friends Nelson Monterroso, a computer engineering sophomore, and Jacob Anderson, an electrical engineering major, helped with the site.
PolyRegister.com was ready for public use by winter registration.
Twenty-seven users have signed up for 127 classes, according to the Web site, and the response to it has been great, Patierno said.
“Everyone I have talked to has seemed pretty ecstatic about it,” he said.
Although free for the first quarter, the service costs $4.99 for each quarter after, and Patierno said he hopes to expand the site. In the future he said he wants to eventually add tools to make choosing a schedule easier, such as searching for classes by professor.
The site does require credit card numbers, a Social Security number and student PIN number to work, which is something Thomas Zurr, registrar for Cal Poly, said should not be given out lightly.
“If I was a student, I wouldn’t be giving out my information,” Zurr said.
Cal Poly goes to great lengths to keep student information private, meeting all Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) requirements, Zurr said. FERPA is a federal act that requires public schools to protect student information.
According to Patierno, PolyRegister.com uses top security systems to protect sensitive information
“The site uses 128-bit encryption, which is what most sites that you give your credit card to use,” Patierno said.
Amazon.com, eBay and mycalpoly.edu all use 128 bit encryption on there sites.
The Web site notes that Polyregister.com is in no way affiliated with Cal Poly and Patierno said that the school had not contacted him about the Web site. Zurr said he had not heard of the Web site, but there was a service similar to it a few years ago called CRASH, which prompted Cal Poly to add waitlists to POWER.