Ideaz

In most colleges, students spend a lot of time waiting in long lines—whether in the canteen during lunch, at the library counter, or in the office for fee payments and certificates. This wastes time, creates stress, and sometimes even causes students to miss classes or meals.

To solve this, I suggest a Smart Queue Management System. Instead of standing in line, students can book their place using a mobile app or by scanning a QR code. The system will give them a token number and show their position in the queue. Students can also see the estimated waiting time on their phones. In canteens or offices, digital screens will display the current token numbers so that everyone knows when their turn is coming.

This system can also use AI to study busy times of the day and suggest better times for students to visit, which will help avoid rush hours. Staff members will also benefit because they can serve students in an organized and calm way without handling large crowds.

The biggest benefit is that students can save time and use it for studying, relaxing, or attending classes instead of standing in long queues. Colleges will also look more modern and efficient, and the overall campus experience will improve.

I got this idea because I have personally faced long waiting times in the canteen and office, and I believe a smart system like this will make life easier for students and staff.

The Problem:

Most of the people waste hours standing in queues at hospitals, banks, events, colleges, and government offices. Existing token systems often require users to wait on site, leading to inefficiency and frustration, and leads to feeling of wasted time.

The Gap in current solution:

Offline token systems like paper slips, display boards are outdated. Existing queue management apps are complicated to use, don’t work across different institutions and real-time updates are often inaccurate or missing and also discourage small clinics, colleges, or local offices. No single platform offers a simple, common solution that is accessible to everyone. 

The Solution:

The proposed Smart Queue Buddy app would let user take a virtual token remotely. Shows real time queue updates like 5 people ahead estimated time 15 minutes, send smart notifications like you’re 3rd in line please return now, helps institutions manage multiple counters efficiently. It also offers messages for users without smartphones and Whatsapp/SMS notification to people with smartphones.

Who does it benefit?

It is helpful to all users standing in line for hours, saves time, reduces stress and frustration, save their valuable time for another important thing. It is also helpful for organisations because it improves efficiency, manage crowd, increase customer satisfaction and also leads to safer and calmer waiting areas.

Why it matters to me?

I have personally experienced and saw a lot of people with frustration and wasted time that comes with waiting in long queues for even simple services like check up at the hospital or visit to bank for creating a bank account. I realised that if waiting could be smarter, people could spend those hours more meaningfully. Smart Queue Buddy is my way of turning this into a simple solution that saves time for everyone.

Technical details:

Smart Queue Buddy uses a backend for data storage and API to connect backend with mobile apps and database to store user tokens queue status, estimate time. User interface for receiving notifications. Admin Dashboard to mange counters and monitor queues.