In conjunction with the opening of the Beus Center for Law and Society at Arizona State University, Unified Field was tasked with building a next-generation mobile application that connected students, staff, and visitors to both the law school community and the building itself.

The result was a feature-rich iOS and Android app backed by a custom Microsoft server platform, designed to support wayfinding, location-aware features, campus communications, events, and a full user directory. The system used Bluetooth LE beacons throughout the building to enable indoor positioning and context-driven interactions, allowing the app to behave differently depending on where users were located.

I served as the technical lead and primary engineer for the project—designing the architecture, developing the iOS application, and implementing the majority of the backend system.

The application needed to function as more than a typical campus guide. The goal was to make the building feel “interactive” and socially connected, supporting both daily student life and major events.

Key objectives included:

• Indoor wayfinding and navigation across multiple floors
• A real-time sense of “who is here” (opt-in presence tracking)
• Integration with ASU authentication systems
• A full directory and social contact system
• Campus news + event feeds with personalization
• Group and event creation tools for student collaboration
• Beacon-triggered content and screen interactions
• A backend robust enough to support hundreds of concurrent users

The platform consisted of three major components:

The iOS and Android apps served as the primary user-facing experience. They provided access to maps, directions, directory tools, event listings, group features, and notifications.

I developed the iOS application in Swift and collaborated with another developer responsible for Android.

A centralized backend powered all app features including:

• user identity + permissions (ASURite + role-based access control)
• data persistence (Microsoft SQL Server)
• directory, profile, and contact management
• event system with RSVP workflows and attendance tracking
• group system with membership, roles, and permissions
• private discussion forums tied to events and groups
• notifications (general + personal + system-driven)
• beacon-based location reporting and presence inference
• map routing and indoor navigation logic
• room availability querying and scheduling integration

I implemented the majority of the server-side system in C# and SQL Server.

Bluetooth LE beacons were deployed throughout the building (hallways, elevators, rooms, and near digital displays). The mobile app continuously scanned beacon signals to estimate user location and provide a building-aware experience.

This infrastructure powered multiple core features, including:

• automatic floor/area detection for maps and assisted wayfinding
• opt-in user presence tracking (“Who’s Here”) for locating contacts and group members
• building activity visualization (“Pulse”) based on live visitor presence in the building
• location-based content and contextual building information
• screen proximity detection to unlock screen interaction features
• room booking and availability visualization tied to building maps
• proximity-based ranking of available rooms based on user location (beacon-derived)

One of the major technical constraints was integrating with ASU’s authentication ecosystem. ASU Law students and staff could log in through ASU WebAuth (ASURite), which returned an ASU identity that could be used to attach privileges and profile data.

The platform supported multiple identity types:

• ASU authenticated users (students/faculty/staff)
• non-ASU guests and visitors

This enabled different capabilities depending on user type, while maintaining a unified UI and database model.

Bluetooth LE beacon deployment was still emerging at the time, and indoor RSSI signals were inconsistent due to walls, floor separation, and signal reflections.

Rather than relying on a single “closest beacon” reading, we built a location inference layer that continuously evaluated multiple beacon signals, smoothed RSSI values over time, and applied threshold-based confirmation logic before changing a user’s detected location.

To prevent rapid oscillation between adjacent areas, the system used weighted averaging, motion-aware switching sensitivity (accelerometer-based), and timeout fallback behavior when signals became unreliable.

This enabled stable building awareness features such as:

• floor/area detection for wayfinding
• opt-in “Who’s Here” presence mapping
• location-driven Pulse visualizations
• proximity-based screen interaction triggers near digital displays

The app included a full wayfinding system that provided step-by-step directions between locations in the building.

To support this, I designed a custom map routing system where:

• navigation nodes were defined across all floors
• nodes were connected as walkable paths
• routing logic computed optimal paths
• special transitions (stairs vs elevator) could be handled differently

Users could select a start and destination point manually, or use their inferred location as a starting point.

This enabled real indoor navigation without requiring external mapping platforms.

A core experience feature was the ability for users to see who else was currently in the building, including room-level and building-level visibility.

This required:

• continuous beacon listening
• server-side location reporting
• privacy controls and visibility settings
• UI flows that made location sharing explicit and optional

This system was also used to support social discovery and “suggested contacts” functionality. Only those in the building and opted in could view others and were visible themselves.

A key extension of the event and group systems was the addition of private, context-aware discussion forums.

These enabled:

• event-based chat rooms for RSVP’d attendees
• group-only discussion spaces for organizations (e.g., “Corp Law”)
• restricted access based on membership and authentication state

This added a real-time communication layer on top of the directory and events system, increasing engagement and coordination within the building community.

Access control was enforced at the backend to ensure only authorized users could view or participate in each forum.

The backend supported a full notification system divided into:

• general campus/building announcements
• personal notifications (invitations, group requests, etc.)

Users could also subscribe to topic-based RSS feeds, creating a personalized stream of ASU Law-related news. The system supported feed aggregation, topic subscription, and delivery through the app UI.

This was one of my first systems designed to potentially serve hundreds (or thousands) of users at once.

Performance mattered. I focused heavily on:

• query optimization
• server-side validation workflows
• stored procedures where needed
• reducing unnecessary app polling
• ensuring the backend could respond quickly under load

This was a major learning milestone for me and became a foundation for later distributed and high-traffic systems work.

The ASU Law building app launched in sync with the opening of the Beus Center for Law and Society and successfully delivered a modern, interactive experience for students and staff.

It represented one of my earliest large-scale multi-platform projects, combining:

• native mobile development (Swift)
• enterprise Microsoft backend development
• real-world beacon deployment
• location-aware UX design
• scalable system architecture under real usage constraints

• technical leadership across a multi-platform product
• iOS development in Swift (production deployment)
• backend development in ASP.NET / C#
• Microsoft SQL Server schema + performance optimization
• OAuth / WebAuth identity integration
• Bluetooth LE beacon prototyping and deployment
• indoor navigation + routing algorithm implementation
• location-aware UX design
• push notifications + CMS-driven publishing
• building-scale systems thinking (hardware + software integration)