Rhode Island Patent of the Month – November 2022
Student Ally, Inc. have dedicated themselves to protecting students. Founded 3 years ago, the company had a simple – but crucial – mission: to help colleges end student-to-student sexual assault. While this mission requires the company’s focus in many directions from addressing the lack of available evidence for students to prove guilt or innocence to addressing societal misperceptions about appropriate sexual behavior, one key direction was keeping students safe.
The company has designed and developed a tool to monitor and ensure student safety and have recently been granted a patent for their work. The system is designed to take a proactive approach to student safety while simultaneously preserving and collecting proper evidence after an incident.
The system uses existing software and hardware that nearly any student will have to track location, call records, and additional information to inform reports in the event of emergencies or assaults. By tracking location data, the system can build a historic travel profile in order to support frequently visited sites, average travel speed, and even typical daily patterns. It also supports investigations in placing students during times of interest. If a student is in a place of interest at the time of the crime, the historic profile can help inform if this behavior is typical or unwarranted.
Student Ally’s mobile app offers more features than geo tracking, but being able to place a person during the time of an assault can go a long way in supporting an innocent or guilty outcome. Protecting students is vital in today’s age and the company won’t rest in their quest to make student safety a priority.
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