HID Global Helps Bay State Bring Students Safely Back to Campus
Bay State uses a digitized contact tracing solution that includes HID Bluetooth BEEKs Beacons to provide real-time location services.
Austin, Texas — HID Global, a worldwide leader in trusted identity solutions, announced Wednesday that Bay State College safely brought its students back to its campuses in Boston and Taunton, Massachusetts using a digitized contact tracing solution that includes HID Bluetooth BEEKs Beacons to provide real-time location services. The HID Bluetooth beacon is in the form of a simple badge holder that is used to carry existing ID badges for students, faculty, staff and guests.
The beacons are part of a robust solution that makes it possible to quickly and easily perform contact tracing, removing the manual and time-consuming effort to identify who has been in contact with whom on campus.
“Contact tracing is a key component for safely operating our campuses and considered by health departments to be one of the most important efforts to help slow the spread of COVID-19,” said Jeffrey E. Myers, Chief Information Officer with Bay State College. “HID BEEKS beacons are carried by each person on campus as part of our solution that enabled us to safely resume in-person classes and keep our campus operational should isolated parts of our community find themselves infected.”
The HID BEEKS Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) beacons provide the starting data that Bay State’s contact tracing solution uses to calculate the time, place, and proximity of faculty, staff, and students while on the college’s two campuses. The information from the beacons enables college administrators to comply with state and local occupancy mandates and, when needed, rapidly respond to cases. Logs are maintained only for the 14-day period required for contact tracing, and the university has adopted strict privacy policy guidelines for data use and access.
“We are very pleased that Bay State College has used HID BEEKs Beacons to help streamline and accelerate the often daunting task of contact tracing,” said Mark Robinton, vice president of IoT Services at HID Global. “In addition to creating a completely digitized approach to this process, HID’s offering is part of a broader platform that provides smart building and optimization capabilities that extend well beyond today’s pressing need to stem the spread of COVID-19.”
About HID Location Services
HID BEEKS Beacons are part of a complete HID Location Services for Workplace Safety that also simplifies and streamlines how to manage social distancing. These workplace safety solutions build on the company’s comprehensive HID Location Services platform deployed by Fortune 500 companies worldwide to manage building occupancy, optimize office and facility space, improve energy efficiency and enhance security. The platform can also monitor assets as well as the condition and health of industrial equipment.
About HID Global
HID Global powers the trusted identities of the world’s people, places and things. We make it possible for people to transact safely, work productively and travel freely. Our trusted identity solutions give people convenient access to physical and digital places and connect things that can be identified, verified and tracked digitally. Millions of people around the world use HID products and services to navigate their everyday lives, and over billion of things are connected through HID technology. We work with governments, educational institutions, hospitals, financial institutions, industrial businesses and some of the most innovative companies on the planet. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, HID Global has over 4,000 employees worldwide and operates international offices that support more than 100 countries. HID Global® is an ASSA ABLOY Group brand. For more information, visit www.hidglobal.com.
About Bay State College
Founded in 1946, Bay State College provides students with relevant hands-on skills and a strong educational foundation. The college is known for its small classes, personalized attention, and career-focused curriculum. Bay State College’s education helps students achieve their full potential as ethically and socially aware citizens. Visit baystate.edu for more information.
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