Louisiana Tech University · Communication Group Project

Dawg Park
at Lambright

A student-built platform that makes coordinating gym time at Lambright as easy as it should have always been.

See the App The Problem
$5K
Total budget
12K+
Tech students
5
Core features
$0
Cost per student
The Problem

Lambright is great.
Getting there isn't.

Lambright Sports & Wellness Center is one of the best perks at Louisiana Tech — free for every enrolled student, packed with courts, a 29-foot climbing wall, bowling alleys, an 8-lane pool, and more. But using it requires navigating a communication system stuck in 2005.

This is a communication problem, not a facilities problem. The space exists. Students want to use it. What's missing is the system that connects them.

📧
Email chains to reserve space
Teams navigate back-and-forth emails with rec staff, no visibility into what's taken or when it opens.
🤷
No way to know if it's packed
Students walk to Lambright only to find the weight room slammed. No live info, no way to plan ahead.
📱
Pickup games lost in group chats
Finding partners or filling a pickup roster depends entirely on who sees a text at the right moment.
🪪
Physical ID card every single visit
Every visit means handing your card to the attendant. Slow, old-fashioned, a bottleneck at peak hours.
What We're Building

Five features. One platform.

📅
Space Reservations
A proper step-by-step booking flow — pick a space, pick a date, pick a time, confirm. No emails. Admin approves with one tap.
📊
Live Busy Tracker
Crowdsourced occupancy by zone — weight room, courts, pool, rock wall. Students report in one tap at check-in. Better data the more people use it.
🤝
Match Board & Tournaments
Find pickup games, workout partners, and teammates. Tournament listings with prize pools are the ignition switch for user adoption.
🗺️
Facility Map
A clear visual floor plan of Lambright — every court, the climbing wall, bowling alleys, pool, wellness clinic. Know where you're going.
📲
QR Check-In & Student ID
A secure rotating QR code replaces the physical card swipe. One scan verifies enrollment, confirms reservations, and logs your visit.
🎽
Equipment Rental V2
Scan a QR tag on pool cues, climbing harnesses, or racquets to check out gear. Return and scan to close the loop. Zero new infrastructure — it's already built.
The Story — Live Skit

Meet Jett & Mason

A typical Tuesday afternoon. Two Louisiana Tech students trying to get to the gym. Click through each moment.

1
Jett — texts Mason
"Yo, wanna hit Lambright after class? Need to get a workout in."
🎭 Jett pulls out his phone — no plan, no info. This is where it always goes sideways.
2
Mason — the realist
"Bro it's 4 o'clock. The weight room's going to be absolutely slammed. Not waiting for a bench."
🎭 Mason's right. 4pm peak hour and there's no way to check without walking over there.
3
Jett — checks the busy tracker
"Hold on—" [opens Dawg Park] "Weight room's at 84%. Courts are at 28%. Let's run basketball instead."
🎭 Jett shows the Home screen — live busy tracker, real numbers by zone, reported by students already there. Decision made in 5 seconds.
4
Mason — spots the match board
"That works but it's just us two. Check if anyone's running a game — I thought I saw something posted."
🎭 Mason taps Match → Basketball. Marcus's 5v5 is right there. 2 of 5 filled. They need exactly two more.
5
Jett — joins the game
"Marcus posted at 5 on Court A. Perfect timing." [taps join] "Done. We're in."
🎭 One tap. Both added to a real pickup game on a reserved court. Coordinated in under 60 seconds without a single text chain.
6
Mason — the problem
"Wait — I left my ID in my dorm. I'm not walking all the way back."
🎭 Happens to everyone. Normally means a wasted trip or going back to get the card.
7
Jett — the fix
"You don't need it. Pull up your QR." [Mason opens My ID tab] "Hold that up at the door. Same as a boarding pass."
🎭 Mason opens the QR tab — rotating code, student info, active status. Holds it to an imaginary scanner. One beep. Green light. They walk straight in.
8
Both — turn to the audience
"Checked the gym traffic, found a game, joined a pickup, walked in without a card. Under five minutes. That's what $5,000 builds."
🎭 Clean handoff to the presentation. Three features, one story, no fluff.
📊
Feature spotlight
Live Busy Tracker
Crowdsourced occupancy by zone. Students report in one tap at check-in — weight room, courts, pool, rock wall. Better data the more people use it. No sensors needed.
Live App Demo

Click through the real thing

Not a mockup — a working prototype of every feature in Dawg Park at Lambright.

Scan to open Dawg Park
dawgpark-lambright.netlify.app
Scan to open on your phone
Your Turn

60 seconds. Try three things.

1
Check how busy the weight room is
Home tab → Live traffic
2
Find a pickup game and join it
Match tab → Request to join
3
Pull up your student QR code
My ID tab → scan at the door
Dawg Park
at Lambright · Louisiana Tech
MS
Good afternoon, Mason
1
Upcoming reservation
2
Match requests
Busy
Weight room now
Open
Courts now
You're checked in — report your zone
📍 Where are you right now?
Live trafficModerate
Weight room
84%
Cardio floor
55%
Basketball
28%
Pool
16%
Rock wall
10%
Your next visit
Basketball Court A
Today · 5:00 – 6:30 PM
Confirmed
Pickup 5v5Marcus's game
Open right now
Racquetball Court 2
Until 7:00 PM · 1–4 players
Open
Rock Climbing Wall
Until 9:00 PM · Gear at desk
Open
Step 1 — Choose a space
🏀
Basketball
Up to 20
🎾
Racquetball
1–4 players
🏐
Volleyball
Up to 12
🏊
Pool Lane
1 per lane
🧗
Rock Wall
Open session
🎳
Bowling
2–6 people
May 2025
Su
Mo
Tu
We
Th
Fr
Sa
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Available times
8:00 AM
SpaceOpen
10:00 AM
SpaceFull
12:00 PM
SpaceOpen
3:00 PM
SpaceGetting busy
5:00 PM
SpaceYour booking
7:00 PM
SpaceOpen
Confirm your reservation
Space
Date
Time
Capacity
StatusPending approval
Lambright Floor Plan
Basketball Courts Court A & B Weight Room A & B Cardio Floor Racquetball Courts 1–4 Volleyball Courts A & B Rock Wall 29ft × 50ft Bowling Alleys Aquatic Center 8-lane 25yd · Diving well Locker Rooms Front Desk Equipment Checkout Health & Wellness Clinic · Counseling · Exam Rooms LAMBRIGHT SPORTS & WELLNESS CENTER — LOUISIANA TECH UNIVERSITY
Courts
Fitness
Recreation
Aquatics
Wellness
Services
Today's Hours
Main facility6:00 AM – 11:00 PM
Aquatic center5:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Rock climbing wall8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Equipment checkout8:00 AM – 8:00 PM
🏆 Prize Pool — $250 Gift Cards
🏆
Dawg Park 3v3 Invitational
Sat May 10 · 10:00 AM · Main Courts
Open
Single-elim 3v3 basketball. Top 3 teams win gift cards. Register through the app — spots going fast.
5 of 8 teams in
3v3Single elimAll levels$250 prize
MR
Marcus R. · Junior
Today 5:00 PM · Court A
Today
Need 3 more for 5v5 pickup. All levels — just show up on time.
2 of 5 filled
Basketball5v5All levels
TK
Taylor K. · Senior
Tomorrow 7:00 AM · Weight Room B
Morning powerlifting partner — squat, bench, deadlift. Intermediate level.
1 of 2 filled
LiftingPowerliftingMorning
AL
Aisha L. · Sophomore
Fri · 6:00 PM · Volleyball Court A
Fri
Casual 6v6 volleyball. No experience needed — good vibes only.
2 of 6 filled
VolleyballCasualAll welcome
Mason Stewart
ID: 700-291-847 · Junior · Mechanical Engineering
LT
Active · Refreshes in 0:43
↺ Tap to refresh early
Today's access
Status✓ Full access
EnrollmentSpring 2025 · Active
ReservationCourt A · 5:00 PM
Guest passes1 remaining
🎽 Coming in V2 — Equipment Rental
The same QR system will power gear checkout. Scan a tag on a pool cue, climbing harness, or racquet to check it out. Return and scan to close the loop. Zero new infrastructure needed.
The Busy Tracker

No sensors needed.
Students are the data.

Installing occupancy sensors across Lambright would cost thousands and require IT buy-in. Instead Dawg Park uses a crowdsourced model — the same principle behind Waze. Students report in one tap, everyone benefits.

The QR check-in solves the cold start problem. Every scan triggers a zone prompt automatically — no extra effort required. More users means more data means a more useful app means more users.

1
Check in via QR
Auto-prompt at the door: "Where are you heading?" One tap, zone logged. Passive data from day one.
2
10-minute nudge
App asks once: "How's it look?" Three options — Light, Moderate, Packed. One second, done.
3
Dashboard updates live
Every report instantly refreshes the busy tracker for all users currently in the app.
4
Gamified reporting
Report 10 times this month → earn priority registration for the next tournament. Reporting has a payoff.
Live Lambright Occupancy
Weight room
84%
Cardio floor
55%
Basketball
28%
Pool
16%
Rock wall
10%
Bowling
40%
📍 Based on 34 student reports — last 30 min
No hardware. No sensors. Just students reporting what they see — the same way Waze knows there's traffic before you arrive.
Budget & Risk

$5,000 spent where
it actually matters.

Full $5,000 Allocation

Every dollar accounted for — no contingency buffer, no fluff

Build
Development (capstone-reduced from ~$8K market rate)$1,500
Web hosting & domain (2 yrs)$150
Design assets & QR tags$150
Launch & Growth
Tournament prize pools (x2 events)$1,000
Social media campaigns$800
Launch event & Lambright tabling$400
Buffer
Contingency (scope creep, integration surprises)$1,000
Total$5,000
Cold start — no users on day one
The launch tournament fixes this. One 3v3 event with a prize pool gets 50+ teams downloading the app to register.
Busy tracker accuracy early on
QR check-in zone prompts provide passive data from day one — no participation required beyond checking in.
Long-term maintenance
Annual cost is ~$200/yr. Handoff to Louisiana Tech IT or rec department is the exit strategy.
Budget at a glance
Build
$1,800
Dev · hosting · design & QR tags
Launch & Growth
$2,200
Tournaments · social campaigns · tabling
Contingency buffer
$1,000
Scope creep · integration surprises
Annual cost after launch
~$200/yr
Hosting + domain. That's it.
The Build Team

We're the strategists.
We need the builders.

This is a communication project — our job is the problem, the pitch, and the plan. The code gets built by Louisiana Tech CS and engineering students who need exactly what this project offers: a real product, real users, and a portfolio piece that actually matters.

Every year, capstone students build apps for fictional companies or problems nobody cares about. Dawg Park gives them a live user base at their own school and a shot at something that gets adopted by the university.

What capstone students get
A real product with real users. A meaningful portfolio piece. Credit for their capstone. The chance to build something that outlasts the semester.
How we recruit them
Present at the CS and Engineering capstone kickoff meetings each August. One targeted pitch, direct pipeline — no flyer posting.
Roles we're recruiting for
Engineering / CS
Frontend Dev
Builds the student-facing web app. React or equivalent. The face of the platform.
Engineering / CS
Backend Dev
Database, reservations, QR auth, admin dashboard. The engine underneath.
Our Team
Product & Pitch
Problem definition, school pitch, launch strategy, and tournament planning.
Our Team
Marketing & Growth
Social campaigns, student outreach, adoption strategy, and reporting to the school.
The Ask

Let us build this
for Louisiana Tech.

A real product, a real problem, a real budget. With $5,000 and the right team, Dawg Park at Lambright can be live and in students' hands by the end of the year.

$5K
Total budget
~8 wks
Build timeline
$0
Cost per student
$200
Annual upkeep
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🎽 What comes next — Version 2
The QR check-in system is already built. Equipment rental — pool cues, climbing harnesses, racquets, basketballs — is a natural extension with zero new infrastructure. Tag the gear, scan to check out, scan to return. That's a future conversation with Lambright staff, not a day-one cost.
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Activity
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