Problem 1

The Whos University is a small college that is located miles from the nearest town. As a result, most of the students who attend classes there also live in the dormitories and purchase one of three types of meal plans. The full plan entitles a student to eat three meals a day, seven days a week, at any one of the campuss three dining facilities. The weekday plan is the same as the full plan, but students can only eat on weekdays. Finally, the 50 meals plan entitles students to eat only 50 meals during the month. Of course, students and visitors can always purchase any meal for cash. Because the school administration is anxious to attract and retain students, it allows them to change their meal plans from month to month. This is a common practice, as students pick plans that best serve their needs each month. But this flexibility has also created a nightmare at lunch times, when large numbers of students attempt to eat at the dining facilities simultaneously. In response to complaints about the long lines that form at lunchtime, the Dean of Students decides to look into the matter and see for himself what is going on. At lunch the next day, he observes that each cashier at the entrance to the facilities asks students to present and ID card, checks their picture, and then consults a long, hard copy list of students to determine whether or not they are eligible for the current meal. A cashier later informs him that these tasks are regrettable, but also mentions that they have become necessary because many students attempt to eat meals that their plans do not allow.The cashier mentions that, at present, the current system provides no way of keeping a student from eating two of the same meals at two different dining facilities. Although the Dean thinks that this idea is far-fetched, the cashier says that this problem is surprisingly common. Some students do it just as a prank or on a dare, but other students do it to smuggle out food for their friends.The Dean realizes that one solution to the long-lines problem is to hire more cashiers. He also recognizes that a computerized system might be an even more cost-effective solution. In particular, he realizes that if the current cashiers had some way of identifying each student quickly, the computer system could immediately identify a given student as eligible or ineligible for any meal.

Questions:

Identify the problems that the Dean faces

What are the positives and negatives of hiring more cashiers? Should this solution solve the problem?

Suggest one technology solution and describe how it would work

What hardware would be required for that solution?

What would the software do?

What data would be collected?