Gliding down a mountain on a snowboard, Nick Groves pulls to the side to ascertain his location on the slope.  Looking around, he realizes that he has no way of knowing where he or any of his friends are. It’s with this revelation that an idea is born.

Groves and fellow junior classmate Weston Berger are both currently working on a ski/snowboard-focused application named Locus.  The app serves as an interactive map of a ski mountain that shows where the skier or snowboarder is located at all times and tells the specific location of friends or family whom they may have synced up with.  According to Groves, this has been needed for a long time.

“We started to design this app because the maps on slopes are completely inefficient.  They’re very big and take up a lot of space.  Having the ability to be told where you are at the push of a button is something that would make navigation of a mountain a much easier and better experience,” Groves said.

In addition to displaying locations of friends on the slope, Berger and Groves both hope that this can be used by ski patrol as a safety resource.  Because the app displays the position on a slope, patrols would be contacted quickly without needing to receive any type of directions whatsoever.

“This application not only helps people contact [more quickly], but also, safety is enhanced a significant amount. We hope that Ski Patrol can take an interest in the value in having an exact location of skiers at all times.  For example, instead of blindly skiing around, ski patrol could be able to check on people that haven’t moved in, say, 20-30 minutes,” Berger said.

According to Groves, the best part about Locus is its ability to be a resource to everyone, from beginners to professionals, and people of all ages.

“The great thing about Locus is that all types of people will get use from it.  Uses of this app can range from a father and son on a ski trip to a group of college kids skiing for the weekend.  People want to be able to contact each other, and we want to help everyone do that on the mountain,” Grovers said.

The development of this is app is just beginning as designs have been made, but the official programmed layout is in its earliest stages.  Although much of the technical work has yet to be done, Groves and Berger’s expectations are high.

“Our main goal right now is to put our ideas into action. We believe that the app will succeed and now all we have to do is make it happen,” Berger said.