Illinois News Bureau

Learn about how the Safer Illinois app supported the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s efforts to keep the campus community safe during the pandemic. This article summarizes the findings of a recent journal article published in Nature Communications that provides a thorough report of the University’s SHIELD: Target, Test, Tell program.

“The university also implemented a policy that required each person to provide evidence of their negative test status via the app or a web portal to gain access to campus buildings, which encouraged compliance.”

“’The Safer Illinois app provided users personalized testing results and reminders of their scheduled testing, along with a display of their current testing status, all without showing any personalized health information to personnel assigned to university building entrances,’ said landscape architecture professor and SHIELD team member William Sullivan, who led the team that developed the app.”