Piotr Nojszewski Reveals Details About Working on RESULT App

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office collaborated with students from BU Spark! and the BU School of Law to develop an app that helps law enforcement recognize labor trafficking. RESULT (Recognize and Evaluate Signs to Uncover Labor Trafficking) is a web-based app that asks a series of questions aimed to identify forced labor and get help for victims.

A Conversation with BU Spark! RESULT Mobile App Developer, Piotr Nojszewski

Piotr Nojszewski (CAS ’22) is one of the students working on the development of this app, and we interviewed him to discover the details behind his interest in pursuing this project.

What inspired you to get involved in the project?
When I came to Boston University, I was eager to gain experience beyond the classroom to further develop my technical skills. This is when I found BU Spark!. Talking to Ziba left me with a strong impression of the positive social impact of the project. When I read the stories of the victims of labor trafficking in Massachusetts, I realized how little resources are available for the people in this situation. I also learned how difficult it is for law enforcement to identify labor trafficking. The inspiration to work on this project came with the thought of utilizing my knowledge for social benefit.

What were some of the challenges you faced?
The main challenges that I faced were software design and legal constraints. RESULT is an educational tool; therefore, it must effortlessly incorporate new content or correct the existing one. That necessitates thoughtful decisions about the software’s structure. Many times, a small change in the application’s content required me to redesign significant parts of the software. On the bright side, we can now expand the website, making it more helpful and accessible, while maintaining the same composition. At the same time, it is important to think through the risks associated with developing technology solutions. For example, storing user data can create a paper trail that could be used in a legal proceeding. I had to be especially careful about ensuring the privacy of our users and other legal aspects of the app.

What are you most proud of?
I’m most proud of the RESULT! It was a great experience to work with the Attorney Generals Office and the BU Law Schools. Interdisciplinary projects are where computer science can prove the most helpful to society. I’m proud to have had the opportunity to contribute my efforts to up-keeping liberty.

Where do you hope to take the project next?
We want to make the app more accessible by adding translations to foreign languages. This would be the most beneficial to the victims facing a language barrier. We were also thinking about improving the resources page by adding a resource search. There are many other features we are considering and we believe that with the feedback from the field investigators we will be able to make the best improvements.

Nojszewski is one of the many students who have benefitted from BU Spark! and the Hariri Institute for Computing. Experiential learning with real-world projects allows students to advance their problem-solving skills in areas of development and project management to name a few. Please visit BU Spark! and the Hariri Institute for Computing webpages to learn more.