Every new term, thousands of people arrive on campus for the first time. Now the way around is on their own phone, in their own language.
A campus is a small city: dozens of buildings, lecture halls with codes nobody can read at first, a library with its own hours, a student office with its own rules, cafeterias, shuttles, and visitors on open days and at conferences. First-year and exchange students arrive from many countries, and they all ask the same things: where building C is, when the library closes, which documents the student office needs, when the next shuttle leaves. Today those answers are spread across a dozen web pages, noticeboards and an information desk at the gate. ToRun's AI assistant puts them on each person's own phone.
Why a campus is one of the best places for it
First-year students, exchange students, new staff, families on open days, conference guests. Every term the same questions start again from zero, and the answers are already written down somewhere.
International students ask in their own language and get the answer in it, even when the student handbook is written in another. The first weeks are when that matters most.
Faculty websites, noticeboards, e-mails, the student handbook. The assistant answers from the documents you upload, so nobody needs to know which office wrote which page.
Faculties, lecture halls, labs, libraries and dormitories spread across the grounds. With a code at each entrance, the answer starts from where the person is standing.
A question from the gate, the library or the dormitory
The code at the main entrance and the code in the library are different codes, so the assistant knows where the person is standing. The answers come from the campus map, building guide, opening hours, student handbook and service information the university uploads.
Illustrative examples. Answers are generated from the information the venue uploads; when the documents have no answer, the assistant says so and the question goes to the report.
Four sides of the campus, four different gains
The same setup gives each part of the university something different: the student gets an answer on the spot, student services gets time back in the busiest weeks, facilities hears about a fault from the person who saw it, and management sees what the campus is asked about, in which languages, and what is missing.
At any hour, from the gate, the library or the dormitory, in their own language, typed or spoken. The page asks for no name and no student number, and nothing needs to be installed.
Questions about office hours, documents and places are answered where they come up. The desk keeps what only people can do: an enrollment problem, a visa letter, a student who needs help.
“The elevator in the library is not working” or “the lights on the path to the dormitories are out” reaches the panel with its spot and time, and by e-mail. If nobody picks it up within the set time, it moves up to the next person in charge.
What students asked for and did not find is collected in its own list: a study space open at night, printing in the dormitories, a weekend shuttle. Measured demand for a service, not a guess.
In the places where students actually ask
A print-ready poster comes out of the system for each spot; the codes can also be printed on existing signs and directory boards.
At the end of the term, you know what your campus was looking for
The report is made of questions: what was asked, at which spot, when, in which language, and whether it was found.
Illustrative report. The real figures come from your own visitors' questions.
The spots where people ask most for directions show where the signs are not doing their job, and which buildings new students cannot find.
The spread across hours and weeks shows when student services and the library need more people at the desk, especially in the first weeks of term.
The languages of the questions show which languages the student handbook and the orientation material need next.
How it fits the academic year
You upload the campus map and building guide, library and office hours, the student handbook, the orientation program, shuttle timetables and house rules, as Word, PDF, Excel or PowerPoint; no special format. You pick the spots and print a poster for each. The page goes live with the university's name, logo and color, and the people you choose get panel access.
Students scan, ask and read. When an office moves, the library changes its hours for exams or the shuttle timetable changes, the document is updated and the answers follow. Fault reports reach the panel and e-mail straight away, and the day's questions and the not-found list can be followed in the panel.
The demand report is in the panel, and the asked-for-but-not-found list downloads as Excel or CSV: input for opening hours, signs and next term's orientation. The spots and codes stay where they are; what changes is the content you upload.
Three principles
No tenant or exhibitor can pay to be put first; the order of an answer cannot be bought.
The assistant is set up to answer only from the documents the venue uploads. When there is no answer, it says so, and the question goes to the asked-but-not-found list.
No account, no form, no name or phone number. The visitor scans the code and asks.
We collect questions, not people
The record is made of the question: what was asked, at which spot, when, in which language, and whether an answer was found. The venue sees what its visitors are looking for without knowing who they are.
Frequently asked
Does it ask students for their student number?
No. The page asks for no name, student number or phone number, and the assistant is set up never to ask for personal data. It is not connected to student records, so it cannot see grades or enrollments.
Can we use it for open days, orientation week or a conference?
Yes. The event program is uploaded like any other document and the codes go where the event takes place. When the event is over, the document is removed and the answers go back to everyday campus information.
Do we need to translate our documents?
No. You upload your documents in the language you work in; someone who asks in another language gets the answer in theirs.
What if a student asks about something personal, such as their health?
The assistant answers from your documents, so it can say where the counseling or health service is and when it is open. On health it gives general information and points to a professional for the personal decision; it does not diagnose, and it is not an emergency channel.
Can we get a surprise bill?
No. The number of questions is set in the contract and usage is visible in the panel at any time; when the number runs out, no extra charge is made without your approval.
Is the AI trained on our data?
No. The AI is not trained on your data; the documents are read at the moment a question is asked. That is why an update to a document shows up in the answers.
Let's set up the first campus together
The software is ready and live. We want to do the first setup together with a university team: a limited number of spots to start with, and at the end we read the report of what students were looking for together. Scope, duration and terms are agreed in a meeting.
Before we meet: we can build a trial page from the public information on your university's website, so you can try the assistant on your own phone with your own campus's information.