Logging attendance

[Chief Hedgehog]

4607 is interested in the App. We have been looking at biometric time-keeping - but I would rather put that money into new gear...

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Pat Fairbank

We have a custom web app for tracking student attendance. It's both a team participation requirement and a safety issue since we work out of NASA.

When students arrive, they use any lab computer to sign in (the app restricts sign-ins to the lab's IP address to prevent cheating).

To sign out, students have to check with a mentor (so that we can enforce a mandatory 15 minutes of cleanup before leaving). The mentor sends an SMS with the last four digits of the student's school ID to a Twilio number that hooks into the web app, which signs them out. The app checks the origin of the incoming SMS against a whitelist and tracks which mentor signed a student out.

If there's enough interest we'll probably open-source this system later in the summer.

[adammiller3122]

We use a system known as TimeTrex. You can get it here www.timetrex.com/onsite_community.php?step=download. It is very easy to learn. PM me if you would like more details.

[mail929]

Our team has a forum with questions of the week (phpbb). Every week we have to log our hours in it. Monday meetings are also required so we have a list of everyone's names and you sign by your name.

[T-Dawg]

Originally Posted by Pat Fairbank

If there's enough interest we'll probably open-source this system later in the summer.

That would be great!

Our team currently uses a simple clipboard where students can sign in and get credit for their attendance. This however is also problematic because we can't track hours, which then creates a situation where students can arrive late/leave early and still get credit for their attendance.

Especially because we have a relatively large team with 50+ members, having an efficient system to accurately keep track of attendance will be greatly helpful to us.

[Lightfoot26]

We use a system called TimeClock MTS in conjunction with a monitor and numpad screwed to the wall right as you walk into the shop.

[Sebastian_341]

341 has used a 2-step fingerprint scanner to log attendance for the past couple of seasons. Students scan their thumbprint at the door and then punch in their student ID number to verify.

[notmattlythgoe]

I'm planning on rewriting our time keeping system this summer. I'm thinking about building in different sign in/out techniques to include at minimum a pin ID system, a finger print reader, and maybe a QR reader. I'd be happy to release it to the community when it is done. What other things would you guys like to see included?

[safiq10]

Originally Posted by itsjustmrb

Team 4063 has used http://www.mytimestation.com/ for the last 2 years. We called and received a free account since we are non profit.

The time station app runs on an old Iphone and we can run several reports and export to excel for processing.

The app allows you to print your own QR Codes and we print them on the back of the student name tags.

Mr. B.

We just emailed the mytimestation asking if they have anything for non profit and they gave us a free account for 200 people! . I definitly recommend asking them for a free license.

[Kimmeh]

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

include at minimum a pin ID system, a finger print reader, and maybe a QR reader

Not an attack against you or your team, but an honest question:
Is that really necessary?

Maybe I've just been involved with small teams (who need all the students we can get), but it seems like over-kill to me. Or do you (larger teams) have serious issues with students fudging numbers?

[notmattlythgoe]

Originally Posted by Kimmeh

Not an attack against you or your team, but an honest question:
Is that really necessary?

Maybe I've just been involved with small teams (who need all the students we can get), but it seems like over-kill to me. Or do you (larger teams) have serious issues with students fudging numbers?

It's not really a problem with students fudging numbers, it just makes it easier to total the 30 students hours with the click of a button. It also just takes the press of a finger (finger print reader is what we use) to sign in and out. The students can also check at any point how many hours they've accumulated throughout the season.

[cjl2625]

Originally Posted by Kimmeh

Not an attack against you or your team, but an honest question:
Is that really necessary?

Maybe I've just been involved with small teams (who need all the students we can get), but it seems like over-kill to me. Or do you (larger teams) have serious issues with students fudging numbers?

This does seem like a but much... I still don't quite understand why teams put so much importance on keeping track of hours.
What's the main reason why you teams keep track of it? Travel?

[notmattlythgoe]

Originally Posted by cjl2625

This does seem like a but much... I still don't quite understand why teams put so much importance on keeping track of hours.
What's the main reason why you teams keep track of it? Travel?

We require 60 hours of build season time to travel to a competition. We also require 100 hours of build season time to be eligible to be in a leadership position or be on the drive team.

We also do it for safety and protection reasons. If we have students logging in we know who and at what times they are there. This way if we ever have to go back and track down if a student was at the school on a certain night for certain times for any reason we can.

[Kimmeh]

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

It also just takes the press of a finger (finger print reader is what we use) to sign in and out. The students can also check at any point how many hours they've accumulated throughout the season.

So you're only using one? The way your post read (that I initially quoted) sounded like students needed to log in with all three.

[notmattlythgoe]

Originally Posted by Kimmeh

So you're only using one? The way your post read (that I initially quoted) sounded like students needed to log in with all three.

Oh, my bad. I meant as in the ability to do any of the 3 from the one program. We prefer the finger print reader because, well its hard to forget your finger at home, but I was thinking I'd build in the ability to use a pin or QR reader if any other teams wanted to take advantage of the program.

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by cjl2625

This does seem like a but much... I still don't quite understand why teams put so much importance on keeping track of hours.
What's the main reason why you teams keep track of it? Travel?

I have several motivations when I track our kids' times. We have travel and varsity letter requirements related to how much time kids travel. Signing in and out is important so we know who is on site and if anyone has left. On our team, we try to give the kids real-world experience in design, manufacturing, business management, etc. One of the real-life things they learn to do is sign in and out of work. The kids also use it as a competition to say who logged the most hours during build season.