By Eric Allen, News Staff

Ever walk by Ryder Hall and wonder what’s going on inside? Now iPhone and iPod Touch owners can find out without even stepping inside the building.
The Office of Undergraduate Admissions released a downloadable application Nov. 3 called Discover Northeastern which features a GPS-enabled campus map with clickable buildings that display events happening within, as well as the complete campus calendar, photo gallery and links to admissions social networking sites, according to a press release.
It’s the second iPhone app from Northeastern, coming after the Go Huskies app the Department of Athletics released March 9, which connects users to news about Northeastern athletics.
‘We’re always looking for interesting new ways to communicate with prospective student about the opportunities at Northeastern,’ said Ronne Turner, associate vice president of’ enrollment and dean of admissions and marketing. ‘We know iPhones are very popular.’
Turner said the admissions office wanted to release an app since last spring. Ken McGrady, a junior mathematics and computer science dual major, is on co-op at software company Intuit in San Diego, Calif., where he created the app. He said development began in mid July.
He said his relationship with the admissions office began when he was a freshman.
‘I became an orientation leader, then a student blogger, and then they were looking for someone to work on an iPhone app,’ he said.
While it was Admissions’ idea to create the app, he said he did most of the work himself.
‘Admissions has these requirements, you need to make sure you fit their requirements,’ he said. ‘I was working with admissions to make sure we were both happy with the end result.’
What resulted is an app that is primarily intended for prospective students and freshmen, Turner said, but could be of interest to current students because of the quick access to the campus calendar.
‘It’s good for finding out what’s happening on campus on a Saturday night and you’re bored, or what’s happening during activities period,’ McGrady said.
Turner said right now the app and its contents are only available to people with iPhones and iPod Touches, but the admissions office is working on translating the information for use on other devices.
Aside from the app’s links to Admissions’ social networking sites, the most interactive feature is users’ ability to input their own information when they first download the app. That kind of connection can help admissions pay better attention to prospective students, Turner said.
‘We’re interested in what else can we add to it and what other ways would an iPhone app be useful to our students,’ she said.
McGrady said he thinks developing iPhone apps is entering into new territory for universities.
‘I think everyone’s very excited for this,’ he said.