Facilitating integration and assistance in crises are the main purposes of the information and educational application "EmergencyEdu", designed for foreign students doing their degree programmes at Wrocław's universities.

The idea to create the application was conceived by the Wrocław City Police Headquarters, and all Wrocław universities were involved in its development.

- It took us about two years to carry the project through. We wanted to improve the safety of young people who chose Wrocław as their place of study. Now that the application has been completed, we want to promote it not only among students but also among the citizens of Wrocław. It contains information that can be useful to all of us - says Jacek Lamperski PhD, Eng, Vice-Rector for Student Affairs at WUST.

The part of the project for which Wrocław University of Science and Technology was responsible included the coordinating the cooperation between the universities, collecting materials, and assembling the team responsible for functional, graphic, and software design. The group comprised students from the Faculty of Computer Science and Management - Paulina Binas, Patryk Bresso, Kacper Kiedos, and Paweł Klecha, as well as Anna Ludwin from the Academy of Fine Arts. The substantive side of the project was supervised by Krzysztof Waśko, University Professor.

The "EmergencyEdu" application offers a choice of five languages - Polish, English, German, Spanish, and Ukrainian. It includes emergency phone numbers, addresses of hospitals, police stations, and consulates in Wrocław, as well as advice on what to do if documents are lost or stolen.

- When I received the application, it was just a text file, and I was wondered for a long time what it should look like. While designing it, I was inspired by the police roof light, which has the characteristic red and blue colours and is associated with flashing light. So I used deep blue, pink, and white, as I wanted to be able to use the application in the sharp sunlight as well. The icons are supposed to symbolise particular information categories and are intuitive enough to let the user remember them after some time and, when looking for specific information, quickly find the data they are interested in - explains Anna Ludwin, who was responsible for the visual design of the application and its interface.

Paulina Binas, Apple iOS application developer, adds that the program also has a built-in search engine that allows quick navigation through the issues. - The tips available in the application concern everyday situations, e.g. using a cash point or renting a flat. For us, these may be obvious things, but for people from another country, they often mean a considerable barrier - explains the student.

"EmergencyEdu" also makes it possible to quickly dial emergency numbers - a call is made automatically by double-clicking. There are also contact details of all Wrocław universities and the most important legal regulations in force in Poland. A separate category is dedicated to police stations - after clicking on a selected object, its exact address is displayed, as well as a photo and a map to facilitate navigation.

- The program was supposed to be simple and contain only the most important information related to security in Wrocław, so you won’t find information about cinemas, pubs, or restaurants. We want the application to be constantly developed with users' comments in mind. The first evaluation is planned for June - says Jacek Lamperski, PhD, Eng.

The application is free and available for Android and Apple iOS platforms.