Ryan Diew ’17
Two years ago I found myself stranded in Ronald Reagan International Airport in Washington, DC. I had an hour layover before boarding my flight to San Francisco, and after a week of finals I was dying to get home. I was tired. I was grumpy. And I was hungry. There was an issue though—it hadn’t occurred to me that I needed to pack food for my trip. One might think that I could have just purchased something in the terminal, since airports have lots of food options. The problem, however, was that I had no idea what food places were nearby or how long it would take me to get to them. To make matters worse, I’d traveled with 3 carry-on bags. Given how tired I was from traveling all day, lugging my bags a long distance across the airport to search for food would simply not have been very feasible. During this time of despair and ravenousness I thought to myself “Why isn’t there a service that can show me airport food vendors, and deliver food to me?” It was in that moment that Trippie was born. I made the decision right then and there to pioneer a service which would remedy a problem that far too many travelers face on a daily basis.
Samantha Braver ’18
Over time, Trippie has evolved from an airport food delivery service, to an airport information mapping tool, which allows travelers to see all of the food vendors around them in the terminals. Currently, there is no mobile based service that’s focused on helping travelers see nearby food options, as only individual airport websites hold this information. Trippie is a mobile app that will take the guesswork and confusion out of navigating big airports. Frequent flyers will no longer need to visit many different airport websites, which are often very “buggy”, since Trippie consolidates all of the essential information into one simple app. The app will allow travelers to explore a detailed interactive map for any airport they visit and immediately get the lay of the land. Current development of the app is going very well. Using San Francisco International Airport as our model, we have successfully integrated mapping functionality, as well as a menu displaying food options in each terminal. We are looking forward to having the app available for download by fall 2016.
Since the idea’s original conception, I have had the pleasure of meeting an exceptional woman in Samantha Braver ‘18. A casual conversation about campus activities fostered a strong friendship and partnership which took this idea to new heights. From day one, Sam’s creativity, passion and intelligence has helped grow and improve Trippie substantially. The addition of Sam, partnered with the help of TIA mentors Janice Ryan ’94 and Bruce Rutter ’73, has really helped us turn thought into action, as we are about to embark upon something really great with this venture. Janice and Bruce stressed to us the importance of taking small steps with our venture, which makes solving the current problem that plagues airplane travelers very realistic and attainable. Trippie would not be possible without them.
Ryan Diew is a junior majoring in Computer Science. This past summer he worked with Google to become Colgate’s Google Student Ambassador on campus for the 2015-16 academic year. On campus Ryan is involved in numerous activities including varsity basketball, Link Staff and student government. He is very interested in the fields of Computer Science and technology, as well as marketing and advertising.
Samantha Braver is a sophomore majoring in Computer Science and Art & Art History. She is a member of the SGA Executive Board, does marketing for the fitness department, and is a member of marketing club.
