Bright blue beacons can be found scattered throughout hundreds of college campuses across the country. The lights rest on top of emergency alarm stations that function as part of the Blue Light Security alarm system. Two seniors at Central Michigan University found a way to fit the 7-foot structures into a pocket.

Bryan Caragay and Hailey Polidori created Guarded Safety, an app that can provide campuses the same safety technology as blue lights, a system of emergency communication that more than 92 percent of college campuses use, including Syracuse University.

“We took an outdated safety system, and basically made it into a mobile and more efficient app for your phone,” said Caragay, a junior studying computer science.

The business partners were inspired to revamp the safety systems on college campuses in their freshman year. Polidori had a class that ended at 9 p.m., and routinely felt unsafe when walking home at night.

Caragay said Polidori constantly called her parents while walking back to her dorm for fear of walking alone.

“It made me think,” Caragay said. “There has to be a better system out there than these poles with buttons on them, especially with the technology we have nowadays.”

Polidori joined Caragay, a veteran computer programmer, to create Guarded Safety. Now the two are at the forefront of college campus safety.

In October, the partners won the $5,000 grand prize at the monthly “5×5 Night” pitch competition, organized by Grand Rapids-based startup and ecosystem facilitator Start Garden.

Start Garden provides entrepreneurs and businesses in the greater Grand Rapids area with access to the many business opportunities and resources available to the community.

“The benefit of that is the opportunity to work in a space with other entrepreneurs who are in some cases doing similar things,” said Laurie Supinski, head of community relations for Start Garden.

They aim to provide opportunity to the community of Grand Rapids, and one of their efforts include monthly pitch competitions. Its name, “5×5 Nights,” comes from the fact that five competitors are given five minutes to present five slides to five judges, who decide a winner for a grand prize of a $5,000 grant.

“Before a community can be friendly to businesses, it needs to be friendly to ideas,” said Mike Morin, Start Garden’s director and chief executive officer.

Morin is no stranger to college safety systems like Guarded Safety. Before joining Start Garden, Morin served as the president of the Code Blue Corporation, the largest manufacturer of blue light systems on college campuses in the United States.

Morin explained that while blue light phones provide a level of safety, they only work if someone is able to physically reach the unit, all the while carrying a device in their pockets that “can provide a broader level of coverage.”

Now developing an Android platform as a counterpart to their existing iPhone app, Caragay and Polidori have already made a deal with Central Michigan to provide their safety services to all CMU students.

They said they believe the app can provide services to colleges as a replacement for blue light phones. Describing the features of the app, Caragay said that Guarded Safety is unlike any other safety system for college campuses because the app uses interactive maps to share data with their partner schools. The data can be used to determine where students are more likely to be in danger, and in turn can allow colleges to make their campuses safer.

Another feature of Guarded Safety is the “Shake-to-Fake Call,” which allows users to shake their phone to create a fake phone call in a dangerous situation.

“There’s a tremendous amount of promise in potentially integrating their technology with those blue light technologies to make an even more powerful system,” Morin said.

Published on November 6, 2017 at 9:49 pm

Contact Jordan: jslazins@syr.edu