Students implement the European Student Card

Abstract

Student mobility is a shared goal of the member states of the European Union. One ingredient that makes student mobility possible is a universal student ID card that is accepted everywhere and can be coded with services at the institutions visited. The European Student Card (ESC) is such a universal ID card, standardized in Europe. A team of students from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology developed the software for it. It works as follows: A student with an ESC simply walks up to a self-service kiosk, presents the card to a reader, and then selects the desired services, such as cafeteria, library, lab access, etc. In this interview, the development team will explain how they made this work smoothly, including the security considerations. This project is another example of how undergraduate students can build impressive software if given a challenge, the right tools, and some supervision.