Research Information Management System

Capture the most comprehensive picture of Penn State’s research output in a single system, and publish the clean metadata via an easy-to-use interface for other developers to build upon.

Large research universities face a challenge when trying to capture and characterize all of the research that they produce. The information about new publications, accomplishments, and grants is often difficult to capture, and is often spread among disparate systems. Penn State University Libraries has been a leader in this space, and West Arete took a leading role in designing and developing the system that’s at the core of their Research Information Management System.

Novo Student Information System

Create and integrate a Student Information System that perfectly models the way a law school thinks and works.

California Western School of Law (CWSL) is a private law school that is highly recognized for its work on diversity and equity. Traditional SIS products weren’t prepared to accommodate CWSL’s enrollment and grading policies. CWSL would have had to adapt their policies to fit the software, which would have come at too great a cost to the school and its inherent strengths. West Arete provided a gradual transition to a system that was designed to integrate perfectly with their existing software and their workflow.

InCommon Federation Manager

Lead the security audit and initial modernization effort of the web application that manages the metadata for the InCommon Federation.

The InCommon Federation provides the trust and identity services for hundreds of educational institutions and millions of users. It’s what allows researchers from disparate universities to seamlessly collaborate on complex projects. West Arete led a security audit of the Federation Manager’s source code, and participated in the initial modernization efforts of this critical system. We’re proud to be an official industry partner of Internet2, and one of the founding InCommon Catalysts.

Living Wage Calculator

Manage the data collection, processing, calculation, design, development, and infrastructure of the de facto authority on living wage data for the United States.

Dr. Amy Glasmeier at MIT is one of the leading researchers on poverty in America. Years ago she developed a technique for aggregating data from several sources to arrive at the true cost of living for a particular community. West Arete developed this research into a web application that would report the living wage for any community in the country. This resource has come to be regarded as the primary trusted resource on living wages in the United States, and continues to influence public and private policy.

Membership Payment Processing

Integrate with several supporting platforms to provide a seamless and secure workflow for all 1% for the Planet business member payments.

1% for the Planet is a collective of businesses that have committed to donating 1% of sales to nonprofit environmental causes. They have experienced rapid growth over the past several years, which was straining their existing processes. Our team introduced and integrated several existing 3rd party systems at 1% for the Planet to create a secure, streamlined workflow for business members to pay their annual dues. West Arete is proud to be a 1% for the Planet member since our founding in 2005.

CAMPfire Social Tool

Create a first-class experience for people using assistive technology to participate in remote conferences.

Internet2 and InCommon are nonprofit organizations that provide software and identity services to colleges and universities in the United States. Their flagship global conferences moved to a remote format in the wake of COVID, but the existing software for social interactions wasn’t accessible to attendees who would be using screen readers and other assistive technologies. Our team worked with their community to design, develop, and deploy an open-source application that provides a first-class experience for everyone.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Submission

Design and develop a perfect workflow for the faculty, staff, committees, and students to work through the process of thesis and dissertation submission, review, and publication.

The process for a graduate student to successfully complete their graduate thesis or dissertation takes several steps and many participants, spanning a period of months. The Graduate School at Penn State had a relatively manual and labor-intensive workflow for shepherding students and faculty members through each step of submission and review. West Arete worked with the University Libraries to develop a specialized application that would perfectly model the ideal workflow for both the Graduate School’s staff and for the graduate students. The result was a dramatic increase in clarity and productivity for all.

ScholarSphere

Develop new capabilities for the library’s institutional repository, which archives and indexes the university’s publications, instructional materials, creative works, and research data.

ScholarSphere is an open source institutional repository produced by the University Libraries. Spanning several years, our team has worked directly with the libraries’ development team to create workflows for open access, improve infrastructure, and add various capabilities.

Centre Gives

Design, develop, and support a secure, high-performance platform for organizations to host online giving days for their communities.

Centre Foundation needed a secure and reliable platform for hosting their annual day of giving. As one of their most highly visible events of the year, the platform needs to be fun, engaging, and it needs to perform flawlessly. We partnered with Centre Foundation to design the perfect system for them. Since then, the platform has expanded to host other giving day events as well.

Focused impact, perfect fit.

We are fortunate to get to work with some of the brightest minds in university research, administration, and infrastructure.

Here are some of the projects that we’re proud to be a part of.