Guardian and See IT among Top 20 finalists of Brains Award

Guardian
Guardian is no stranger at Fontys. For instance, Guardian was also one of the finalists in the ICTalent Awards: the competitive showcase of Fontys School of ICT. The driving force behind this concept is ICT & Business student Steve Thijssen. Steve is very ambitious and seizes any opportunity to pitch his ideas and products to the outside world. “Guardian is a web-based chat platform for kids between 8 and 18 years old. Upon opening the chat box, you can choose a language, allowing any child to chat in his/her own language. Because the chat platform automatically asks small questions social workers can monitor where the conversation is going. This way the right social worker with specific knowledge can be brought in to take over the conversation. From the children's point of view they always talk to the same "person", namely the Guardian Bot. This bot is portrayed as a child-friendly confidential character that talks to children. 

In order to keep things as anonymous as possible we do not ask children for their personal details (such as name or e-mail). The programme creates a unique link for each conversation that children can save in order to continue the conversation later. This makes it possible to also employ workers from organisations who are only available at certain hours. Indeed, we see Guardian as an addition to the Kindertelefoon (Children's phone line), where questions are taken seriously and where children can receive help immediately whenever they need it," Steve Thijssen tells us enthusiastically.

See IT
Contestant See IT is also one of the talents of Fontys School of ICT that will engage in the contest with the other participants on 14 June. See IT is represented by student Arjen van Gaal. He explains: “Sadly sometimes children drown or go missing. The chance of these things happening is only increasing with the ever growing number of refugee immigrants. They often can't swim because they don’t have access to facilities for leaning how to swim. Also at the beach, with thousands of people walking around, it is hard to keep an eye on your kids. See IT has the solution. By combining GPS and light in a wristband See IT helps keeping kids safe. Using the See IT app, parents can restrict how far their children can venture out. Whenever they leave the demarcated zone, parents get a warning on their phone. Also when the child enters the water parents will receive a notification. The GPS signal blacks out under water. This way parents know immediately when to be extra alert. Additionally the wrist band can send out a pulsating light signal to help find the child quickly.

If the parents need extra help in finding their kids, they can make the profile of their child public through the See IT app. In that case all See IT users in the vicinity will get a notification and a joint search can be set up to reunite parents and child. There is no time to waste when a child goes missing, therefore working together is essential."

Sources: 
https://www.fontys.nl/actueel/fontys-finalisten-tijdens-de-brains-award/
http://www.brainseindhoven.nl