Country of Residence
Nigeria
Age
20
Project title
ZoomTran
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
ZoomTran is a smart campus transportation platform that helps University of Ilorin students seamlessly discover, access, and board shuttles, tricycles, CNG buses, and Marcopolo buses without the friction of traditional ticketing and long queues.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
Project Category
My project is a brand new / emerging idea
Project Stage
Pilot-Stage (We’ve tried an activity or two)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
The spark for ZoomTran came from my experience as a student at the University of Ilorin and from seeing how LAMATA’s BRT system helps make transportation in Lagos more organized. At the University of Ilorin, I noticed how much time and energy students lose trying to move to, from, and around campus. Long queues, overcrowded vehicles, limited buses, and transportation delays can leave students waiting under the sun for long periods or arriving late to lectures. There was also the friction of having to figure out where to find a vehicle and, in some cases, buy a ticket before boarding. My “Aha!” moment was realizing that the problem wasn't only the number of available vehicles; it was also the lack of a seamless connection between students and the transportation already available to them. I asked myself: What if campus transportation could be as organized and accessible as a modern public transit system? That question became ZoomTran. Inspired by LAMATA, I envisioned a platform built specifically for University of Ilorin students, connecting them with shuttles, tricycles, CNG buses, and Marcopolo buses while reducing the friction of traditional ticketing and long queues. ZoomTran is my attempt to use technology to make campus transportation more predictable, accessible, and seamless, and ultimately give students back the time and energy they lose to inefficient commuting.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
University of Ilorin students face a daily transportation challenge that affects more than just how they get from one place to another. Long queues, overcrowded vehicles, limited transportation options, and unpredictable availability often mean students spend significant time waiting at terminals, sometimes under difficult weather conditions, just to get a ride. The challenge is made worse when transportation routes or motor parks change, when there are not enough buses to serve the student population, or when fuel scarcity affects operators. Students can arrive late to lectures, feel physically exhausted before classes even begin, or spend valuable study time trying to find transportation. Another major gap is accessibility. Students often have to physically go to a transport point to discover whether a shuttle, tricycle, CNG bus, or Marcopolo bus is available, while traditional ticketing can create additional delays and inconvenience. This matters to me because I experience this problem as a student, and I have seen how something as basic as transportation can affect a student's entire day. I believe students should not have to sacrifice hours of their day simply because getting a ride is difficult. ZoomTran is designed to address this gap by making campus transportation more accessible, coordinated, and seamless for the University of Ilorin community.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
ZoomTran is a smart campus transportation platform designed to connect University of Ilorin students directly with available transportation options and make the entire boarding process more seamless. Students can use ZoomTran to discover available shuttles, tricycles, CNG buses, and Marcopolo buses operating around campus. Instead of physically moving from one terminal to another just to find a vehicle, students can use the platform to identify available transportation and understand where they can board. A key part of our solution is reducing the friction around traditional ticketing. Rather than requiring students to purchase a ticket before reaching a vehicle, ZoomTran is designed to support a more seamless digital boarding experience, helping students get access to transportation without unnecessary queues and delays. The platform can also provide important information such as routes, boarding points, vehicle availability, and transportation status, helping students make better decisions about how to get to their destination. For transport operators, ZoomTran creates a digital connection to the student population they serve. This can help improve visibility of available vehicles and make transportation demand easier to coordinate. Our goal is not simply to digitize bus tickets. We are building a campus transportation system that connects students, routes, vehicles, and boarding points in one place. By reducing uncertainty around where and when to find transportation, ZoomTran can help students spend less time waiting and more time attending lectures, studying, and participating in university life.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
ZoomTran is currently at an early stage, but the problem we are addressing is one that our team of five understands personally as students of the University of Ilorin. We have experienced the long queues, overcrowding, transportation uncertainty, and time lost trying to get around campus. So far, our biggest impact has been turning this shared experience into a practical solution rather than accepting it as a normal part of student life. As a team of five, we have combined our different skills and perspectives to research the problem, define the user experience, and develop the concept for a more seamless campus transportation system. Our initial target is the University of Ilorin student community, where thousands of students rely on campus transportation every day. We want to measure our impact through the number of students who use ZoomTran, the reduction in time spent waiting for transportation, number of vehicles and operators onboarded, and the number of successful digital boarding transactions. Our vision is to make transportation more predictable and accessible for students while helping transport operators better connect with passengers. If successful, we believe ZoomTran can significantly reduce the time and frustration students experience when commuting and demonstrate how technology can improve transportation within university communities beyond the University.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
What makes ZoomTran different is that we are not simply creating another ticketing platform or ride-hailing service. We are applying the principles of organized public transportation, inspired by systems like LAMATA, to a university environment where transportation works very differently. Existing solutions often focus on either booking a private ride or purchasing a ticket. ZoomTran focuses on the complete campus transportation experience: finding available vehicles, understanding routes and boarding points, accessing different transport types, and boarding with less friction. Our innovation is in bringing multiple forms of campus transportation—shuttles, tricycles, CNG buses, and Marcopolo buses - into one connected platform designed around the daily movement patterns of students. We are also addressing a major gap in traditional campus transportation: students often have to physically queue or visit a transport point before knowing what is available. ZoomTran aims to make this information accessible digitally, allowing students to make transportation decisions before they get to the terminal. Rather than forcing an existing transportation model onto students, we are designing around the realities of the University of Ilorin. The platform connects students, transport operators, routes, vehicles, and boarding points within one ecosystem. What makes ZoomTran particularly innovative is its potential to turn an informal and sometimes unpredictable campus transportation experience into a more connected, data-driven, and student-centered transit system, without requiring the university to completely replace the transportation infrastructure that already exists.
How many people are on your team?
5
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
ZoomTran is being developed as a team of five, with me serving as the team lead. I coordinate the vision, direction, and execution while ensuring every team member has a voice in shaping the idea. We share ideas openly, challenge each other’s thinking, and collaborate on defining the essential features and future development of ZoomTran. Although the project has not launched yet, we are working together to turn the concept into a practical solution for University of Ilorin students.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Over the next three months, our priority is to turn ZoomTran from an idea into a working mobile-first application. As a team of five, we will design and develop the core platform, focusing on student onboarding, route and boarding-point information, available transportation options, digital ticketing/boarding, and a simple experience that works well on mobile devices. We will then test the initial product with students and transport stakeholders within the University of Ilorin, gather feedback, identify gaps, and improve the platform before a wider launch. With funding, our next major step will be developing and acquiring the hardware infrastructure needed to support a seamless physical-to-digital boarding experience. This will include rechargeable/top-up cards and electronic tap-in devices, inspired by the way systems such as LAMATA’s BRT integrate physical boarding with digital technology. We will also work toward partnerships with relevant university authorities and transportation operators to onboard vehicles, establish routes and boarding points, and create a sustainable operating model. Our immediate goal is to launch a functional pilot at the University of Ilorin, prove that the system reduces transportation friction for students, and use the lessons from that pilot to prepare ZoomTran for expansion to other university campuses.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
Because ZoomTran is still at the idea stage, our approach to activating others will begin with the people who experience the problem every day: University of Ilorin students and transportation operators. Our team of five will start by speaking with students across different faculties and accommodation areas to understand their transportation experiences, challenges, and expectations. We will use these conversations to validate our assumptions, collect feedback, and involve students in shaping the solution rather than building something without their input. We also plan to engage transport operators and relevant university stakeholders to understand how the existing transportation system works and identify where technology can genuinely improve it. As we develop the mobile-first application, we will invite early students to test the platform and become early users and advocates. We will use student communities, social media, campus organizations, and word-of-mouth to create awareness around the transportation problem and the solution we are building. Our goal is not just to get people to use ZoomTran, but to make students part of the change. We want the community to help us identify problems, test solutions, share feedback, and ultimately demonstrate that campus transportation can be more seamless, accessible, and student-centered.
