The Adoption of a Smart Card at the University of Porto

Abstract

The University of Porto, recognizing the relevance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for the overall performance of the institution, is committed to technology leadership for the benefit of the academic community. The Digital University Department is a central department dedicated to ICT, whose mission is to promote and extend the use of ICT to all the activities of the University, as well as to induce the development and adoption of innovative services in this area. In this context and following a recent partnership celebrated in July 2008 between the University and the Santander Totta Bank, the Digital University Department is supporting the adoption of a university identification card - U.PORTO Card. It is a smart card with several embedded technologies allowing the implementation of a campus card system. Although this project is still in the beginning, significant improvements have already been achieved. The main objective of this work is to present the project of the U.PORTO campus card. The goals, methodology, applications, adoption factors and ongoing developments are here discussed.