XR Producer Lesley Johnston reflects on a collaboration with University of Bristol students, who created a prototype Antarctic heritage app to help visitors connect with the continent’s historic sites.
How do you help someone connect more deeply with Antarctic heritage when they may only have a brief opportunity to see a historic site from a ship, a zodiac, or during a short landing?
That was the challenge we set a group of second-year software engineering students from the University of Bristol as part of a live client brief with UKAHT. The task was to imagine and build a mobile app for international visitors in Antarctica, helping them learn more about the continent’s Historic Sites and Monuments, understand why these places matter, and value the fragile environment that surrounds them.
At UKAHT, we care for some of Antarctica’s most extraordinary historic buildings and artefacts. We also work to share their stories with people around the world. Increasingly, that means thinking creatively about how digital tools can help us reach people before, during and after their encounters with Antarctica.
A real-world challenge
It’s been fantastic to support the students in this live project. The whole team was fully on board with working to address a genuine, real-world challenge UKAHT faces as a charity from day one, and they never stopped giving one hundred per cent.
The students approached the brief with professionalism, curiosity and enthusiasm. Over five months, they worked with us to gather ideas, understand our many feature requests, assess what was feasible, and build a working app from the ground up.
Each member of the team brought something important to the project. Germaine Wong led on the map functionality, Tanisha Kalutota worked on the weather page, forecasting and weather caching, Sujen Sudarsan and Harley Huang developed the online and offline database and other backend systems, Hualing Qin created the home page, and Daisy Green worked on the sites page while also keeping in close contact with us as clients.
What the students created
The result is an engagement tool unlike anything UKAHT currently has. From a visitor’s perspective, the prototype app introduces UKAHT and our work, shows where our sites are located on a dynamic map, and spotlights each site with basic information, images and engaging interactive features.
It includes fun fact widgets sharing lesser-known stories from Antarctica’s historic sites, as well as live and historic weather comparisons designed to raise awareness of the changing climate and the impact it has on the heritage buildings we protect.
The app also includes a searchable public comments board, creating the possibility for visitors to share their own experiences of Antarctic heritage with each other and with UKAHT.
Helping people make the most of Antarctica
For us as a charity, the project opened up exciting questions about how an app like this could support future visitor engagement. If taken forward, it could help people prepare for their visit, make the most of their heritage experience in Antarctica, and reflect afterwards on what they saw and learned.
It could also give UKAHT a new way to connect directly with visitors and encourage them to think about the preciousness of both the buildings and the environment around them.
Helen Langwick, UKAHT’s Head of Public Engagement, said: “To get such a high-quality and usable product has been brilliant, the team worked really hard and were very responsive to our needs and feedback. It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with them, and we have a really great product that will help us advance our aims as a charity.”
From prototype to real-world potential
The project has already had real-world benefits. Our colleagues Sophie and CJ were able to take the prototype to the IAATO conference for an informal test, giving us a valuable opportunity to see how the app might sit within conversations about Antarctic tourism, visitor engagement and heritage interpretation.
That chance to trial and explore the app has helped us think more deeply about what the next stage might look like. We are now considering whether the student prototype could be tested during an Antarctic season, or whether we might work with developers to build on the strong foundations the students have created.
Learning through collaboration
For the students, the project was also a chance to see how their developing skills could be applied to a very real challenge.
Tanisha Kalutota said, “I really enjoyed working on this project because I knew it meant as much to my team as it did to UKAHT. I was responsible for working on the weather and the individual site page, and really loved seeing peers at university test the app and learn more about the sites UKAHT protects.”
Daisy Green said, “Working with UKAHT has been such a gratifying and rewarding experience, working so closely with Lesley and Helen and seeing our project grow into a functional application that will be used in the real world is something not all students get to do, so thank you so much for giving us this opportunity in the first place! My favourite part I worked on is the sites page of the app, specifically the fun fact widgets, as I learnt so many interesting facts about Antarctica, UKAHT and the amazing sites they preserve.”
More than a technical brief
For me, one of the most rewarding parts of the collaboration was seeing how quickly the students understood that this was not just a technical challenge. It was also about storytelling, environmental responsibility, accessibility and care.
The app had to be useful, engaging and robust, but it also had to reflect the values of UKAHT and the sensitivity of the Antarctic environment.
It has been inspiring to see how these students in STEM could bring so much enthusiasm and technical value to us UKAHT. And hopefully we’ve been able to help the students appreciate how the skills they are developing could bring about real positive impact in the world as they move into their professional careers.
A brilliant achievement
For a first live client project, the standard of the finished prototype was hugely impressive. The students built an app from scratch, linked APIs, cached data, developed backend storage, created online and offline functionality, and designed something that felt thoughtful, polished and aligned with UKAHT’s public engagement work.
It was brilliant to work with these young professionals. I hope our paths cross again on future projects, and I have no doubt they have stellar careers ahead of them.
Whatever happens next with the app, this collaboration has already helped UKAHT imagine new possibilities for sharing Antarctic heritage with the people who travel there, and with those who may never get the chance, but still care deeply about its future.
If you love a place, protect it
UKAHT is committed to making Antarctica, its heritage and its stories accessible to everyone.
Eighty years in Antarctica have left their mark on this beloved site. Now, Port Lockroy urgently needs restoration to protect its future. Please donate today.
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