Student Spotlight: Streamlining Campus Safety Compliance

Six UIC students standing in a conference group in front of a wall screen that reads

This spring, students from UIC’s Information and Decision Sciences (IDS) Consulting Practicum teamed up with the Office of Preparedness and Response to tackle a high-impact project improving campus safety.

Their mission? Modernize and automate how UIC tracks Campus Security Authorities (CSAs) — mandatory crime reporters who play a key role in ensuring compliance with the federal Clery Act.

The Challenge

UIC previously used a manual and time-consuming process to update over 40 CSA lists—each tied to a different university unit. Every year, staff had to comb through 30,000+ employee records, match them with reference data, and update each list by hand.

The Solution

The student team designed a secure, automated system that:

  • Pulls employee data directly from secure emails,
  • Adds critical information like a CSA identifier and CSA training completion status,
  • Organizes it into 40+ separate Google Sheets, each maintained by a designated Clery Act Liaison,
  • Provides Liaisons with real-time access to manage their rosters.
  • AI integration enables reporting, data visualizations, and centralized data manipulation

The Impact

Now, with the click of a button, the entire system updates monthly. Liaisons can instantly view or revise their employee lists, and administrators get a live dashboard showing all active CSAs, making training and compliance tracking faster and more accurate.

Project Team

Tani Agboola

A female student wearing a pink shirt and a black graduation cap

I’m a graduating senior at UIC majoring in IDS with a concentration in Business Analytics, currently earning Latin Honors with a 3.8 GPA. Alongside co-running an events planning & coordination business, I’ve also gained hands-on experience through campus work, volunteer efforts, and a strong focus on launching my career as a Data Analyst with long-term goals in consulting.

Daniel Galinski

A male student wearing a blue sports jacket

I am Daniel Galinski, and I hold a Bachelor’s in Information and Decision Sciences from the University of Illinois Chicago. I helped to automate the process for quicker reporting time and I set up the front end for user friendliness. This experience improved my technical skills and further interested me in IT infrastructure and problem-solving using data.

Miguel Guerrero

A make student wearing a blue suit with white shirt and red tie

Hello everyone! I’m a graduating senior in Information and Decision Sciences. This project deepened my passion for consulting while strengthening my teamwork, client engagement, and technical skills—thankful for the opportunity to grow and contribute!

Rohan Saini

A male student wearing glasses and a black suit, white shirt and a black tie

Hi! My name is Rohan Saini, and I am a graduating senior with a Bachelor of Science in Information and Decision Sciences with concentrations in Management Information Systems and Business Analytics. As an aspiring software developer, I gained hands-on experience with process automation, data compliance, and project management. This experience deepened my skills and interest in delivering impactful technology solutions.

Ethan Zhang

A make student wearing a black suit with white shirt and red tie

I am a student at the University of Illinois majoring in Information Decision Science with a concentration in Management Information Systems. This project helped improve my teamwork, communication, and technical skills while also giving me valuable experience collaborating with clients and presenting updates professionally. I hope the knowledge and experiences I gained from this project could help me land a job in the future.

Teaching Assistants:

Shobhit Gopalakrishnan

A male student wearing glasses and a green shirt

I am a consultant with a dual Master’s background (MS, MBA) and a global perspective, having led initiatives across SaaS, eCommerce, Healthcare, and ERP industries. My experience spans product lifecycle management, user-centered design, and data-driven decision making, with a focus on enhancing operational efficiency and delivering measurable business outcomes.

I have driven multimillion-dollar revenue recovery through process automation, streamlined WMS and ERP integrations, and led enterprise feature rollouts with high adoption rates. In parallel, I am passionate about leveraging AI and advanced analytics to solve complex problems — demonstrated through projects like SQL Genie, an agentic AI-powered SQL assistant, and a Mental Health NLP Study analyzing user sentiment with GPT-4 and BERTopic.

I thrive at the intersection of product, data, and technology, consistently aligning user needs with business goals to create impactful, scalable solutions.

Parth Kanani

Parth Kanani

Retrieve Secure HR Employee Data
Automatically access updated HR rosters from secure email.
Import Data via User-Friendly Interface
Seamlessly upload the data into the system with one click.
Append CSA Status and Reference Information
Match records with existing data to flag current CSAs.
Distribute to 40+ Unit-Specific Rosters
Organize employee records by department or unit for each Clery Act Liaison.
Enable Real-Time Google Sheet Access for Liaisons
Each Liaison can access and manage their assigned roster live.
Liaisons Update CSA Statuses as Needed
Add or remove CSA designations at any time.
Dashboard Automatically Reflects Updates
University administrators see a live view of all CSAs and their training status.
Integrate AI Genie for Advanced Reporting and Analysis
AI Genie by Shobhit enhances the system with AI-powered reporting, visualizations, and data manipulation capabilities.