Printing Buddies
November 4, 2019
A War Against Printers:
Changing the Way We Interact With Printers
Introduction:
Printing is an important part of our daily lives, about 2,000 papers are printed each day on average in colleges. Each college student in the City College of New York has a package of 1,000 papers covered by their tuition. In the City College of New York campus, there are about seven libraries. But not every library has printers that are accessible and convenient for the traveling distance of finding a printer. The biggest library is located in the North Academic Center where most of the printing occurs throughout the day in the technology center. During finals or midterms, these printing stations can get very crowded. Our current printing system requires us to release our print jobs from the computer and then it instantly prints the papers. There is a chance that more than one person is releasing his or her paper in the same printer at the same time. This can lead to a time-consuming matter for the trouble of distinguishing whom the papers belong to for each student. Moreover, this matter can get worse when the printer is down or out of papers and the user will be left with no option other than to wait until the problem is fixed.
In our survey, we found out that approximately sixty-four percent of student’s copies get mixed up with other’s copies when printing. This results in a misunderstanding with student’s work and wastes time which makes students late to their next class. After conducting a survey, we found that seventy-eight percent of the students attending the City College of New York supports our proposal for implementations of a new printing system. Data that were collected displays that ten minutes is the average amount of time that most students waste to travel from one building to another to get access to printing. We found through our survey that ninety-five percent of students would prefer more printing stations outside of the NAC.
Action Plan:
We would perform the following tasks to determine the baseline requirements for implementing the printing system at CCNY:
Step 1. Research printing solutions used by other institutions.
We have researched several colleges and found that CUNY Queens College and SUNY Stony Brook University use a printing method where the user swipes their student ID card into the card reader that is installed in the printer. In this way, the system ensures that the printer will only print out the papers when a user swipes their card and eliminates confusion and the risk of papers getting mixed with others. Moreover, we also found that using an ID card as a method to print gives user the flexibility to switch printing stations when a certain printing station is busy or down for maintenance issues, since users are not releasing their printing work before coming to the station and does not have to wait until the issue is resolved.
Through our research, we discovered that some universities have printing stations in almost all of their buildings so that their students do not have to leave the building and enter another building just to print a few papers. This is really convenient for students in those universities because it can save students time and hassle.
Step 2. Research student’s attitudes toward installing printers and ID card systems.
In a typical student life, printers are a necessity. It will be convenient for students if there are more printers installed around the campus. The ID card system is a suitable way to access printers by activating student accounts through the barcode on the back of their ID cards. According to the survey, more students attitude towards the printing and ID card system was positive rather than negative. Seventy-eight percent of students agreed to implement the new ID card system, while twenty-two percent disagreed due to the fact that they don’t really print much and the printing system isn’t really a concern. Furthermore, some students are comfortable with the current printing system that is available for them.
Step 3. Research about ID card readers and printers in the market.
For this proposal to be established, we will need two components. An ID card reader and a printer. The best and affordable ID card reader is the Mini USB Magnetic Stripe Swipe Reader, it can be purchased and ordered from the manufacturer company Dell for the price of $59.99 for each card reader. This reader can be connected to any device that has a USB interference. This is suitable for a printer because most printers have a USB interface port. The best printer for this system would be the HP LaserJet Enterprise 700 for a price of $4,185.00.
Step 4. Research about the technician and labor needed
Our project will require a lot of heavy lifting duties such as lifting the printers and placing them inside the buildings. One or two adult laborers will be required to do the job. For installations of the card readers into the printer, we will need someone who has prior knowledge about printer related works. The person also has to be knowledgeable about connecting and installing the card readers with the paper-Cut software that is used by CCNY.
Task Schedule :
| Activity | Start Date | Finish Date |
| Ordering the Products | 11 November 2019 | 15 November 2019 |
| Estimated Delivery | 02 December 2019 | 06 December 2019 |
| Installation | 23 December 2019 | 30 December 2019 |
Cost and Benefits :
We will have to buy 26 new printers and card readers to install them around the campus. Out of them, 12 printers will be installed in Steinman Hall, Shepard Hall, and Marshak Science Building, each having four. Administration Building, Aaron Davis Hall, Harris Hall, Wingate Hall, Compton and Goethals Hall, Baskerville Hall, and The Bernard and Anne Spitzer will hold two printers in each of them. We will need 5 more additional card readers for the printers that are already installed in City Tech Center at NAC.
| Product Name | Amount | Cost ($) | Cost ($) |
| Mini USB Magnetic Stripe Swipe Reader | 31 | 59.99 | 1859.69 |
| HP LaserJet Enterprise 700 Color MFP
M775f-CC523A#BGJ |
26 | 4185.00 | 1,08,810 |
| Total | 1,10,669.69 | ||
If we buy the above-recommended products, our estimated cost will be around $1,10,669.99. But we also have to consider additional labor fees that might vary. According to our research, a normal IT technician should be able to successfully install the card readers in the printers without having any trouble. Around five days will be needed to install the printers and one laborer will also be needed to install the printers in proper places. So, after adding the labor cost, the total cost for the project will be around $112469.69.
| Installation Cost | Hours | Hourly rate ($) | Cost ($) |
| Labor Fee | 40 | 20.00 | 800.00 |
| Technician Fee | 40 | 25.00 | 1000.00 |
| Total | 1800.00 | ||
According to the survey we have done, 56% of the students use campus printers as their primary source for their printing works and students on average, come to the printing stations at least four times per semester. Now, for a student, whose class is in Steinman Hall and has to print his papers, it would take at least 10 minutes to come to the NAC Cohen library and return back. If we consider the whole 56% of students at the college, this number will be more than six thousand hours. If we consider the lowest wage allowed by state law, we are wasting $90,000 each semester. B j
Team Biographies:
Nahin Imtiaz, a senior student at The City College of New York, is a Computer Science major in the Grove School of Engineering and is very knowledgeable about Statistics analyzation, data visualization, and multiple programming languages. He is a former student of Queens College and Stony Brook University and has been awarded the dean’s list for the academic year 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. Mr. Imtiaz has also been a part of several social organizations such as Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and Bangladesh Scouts.
Jahan Amrin, who is a sophomore student at The City College of New York, majoring in Computer Science. She is skilled in the use of mathematics and technology. She is also experienced in CAD and circuitry. She also has programming knowledge from operating and coding the Vex Robot. She is reliable and dependable due to the fact that she has a lot of customer service experience. She also has the ability to program, test and run hardware and software. She has done a few internships relating to Computer Science and Engineering such as Robofun, Magellan Aerospace, and ACE internship.
Nadia Nuru, a sophomore student attending The City College of New York. She hasn’t yet declared a major, however, she is seeking a Biomedical Engineering degree. She is also interested in minoring in Economics and Business. She is conversant in mathematics and biology. Nadia is a very responsible, hardworking, dependable, and intelligent student with very good leadership, communication and time management skills.
Conclusion :
Printers are a necessity for our lives. We need printers in workplaces, schools and even at home. Although the use of paper has decreased over the years and most documents are received and delivered through technology, printed papers are still significantly important. For instance, some professors require to hand in papers as a hard copy instead of soft copies. This triggers your thought of where you decide to choose the location to print. Most students, in fact, seek the local library that provides printers on their campus. But the fact is, though it is true that students can access the printers, however, one cannot simply try to print without the trouble of signing into an account. A solution to this problem would be installing ID card readers to access the printers. Students can go up to printers and slide their ID card to receive their papers. In City College, when students are printing their papers most papers are printed in the same location which leads to a mix of papers, leading to a cost of more time. Furthermore, installing the card readers will decrease the amount of waiting time a typical student meets when needing to print.
Work Cited:
Link for the printer –https://www.businessprinters.com/hp-laserjet-enterprise-700-color-mfp-m775f-cc523-bgj?gclid=CjwKCAjw0vTtBRBREiwA3URt7u-RTn-K-EJqzwu1tyeU3jhLs5ZYu14JMg58k5czoVYknarvn4_8fhoCt0AQAvD_BwE
Appendix:
Survey questions –
Do you print at home or on campus?
Would you prefer more printing stations outside of the NAC?
Do you prefer the proposal we talked about?
Figure 1. People that prefer our proposal
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