UQ Eats: A Campus-Specific Food Delivery System 🍔📚🚶♂️
Abstract
UQ Eats is an innovative food delivery platform designed exclusively for the University of Queensland (UQ) campus. Unlike traditional food delivery services like Uber Eats or DoorDash, UQ Eats allows students to order food and beverages directly to specific buildings, classrooms, and study spaces on campus. The platform also provides an opportunity for students to earn money by signing up as delivery couriers. The key quality attributes prioritised in this project are scalability, interoperability, and deployability. These attributes are critical for ensuring a seamless and efficient food delivery experience that caters to the dynamic campus environment.
Author
Name: Matilda Damman
Student number: 47057111
Functionality
The UQ Eats platform will deliver the following core features:
- User-friendly mobile and web interface: Students can easily browse menus, place orders, and track deliveries.
- Location-based delivery: Orders can be placed to specific buildings, classrooms, and common areas within the campus.
- Student-driven delivery system: Students can sign up as couriers and earn money by delivering orders.
- Real-time tracking and notifications: Users receive updates on order status and estimated delivery time.
- Secure and seamless payments: Integration with university accounts, credit cards, and digital wallets.
- Integration with campus eateries: Direct partnerships with on-campus food vendors.
Scope
The MVP will include:
- A basic ordering system (mobile/web) with a menu listing campus eateries.
- User authentication (students and couriers).
- Location-based order placement and tracking within select campus zones.
- A simple earnings system for student couriers.
- Payment processing through a secure gateway.
- A lightweight backend to handle orders, dispatching, and tracking.
Quality Attributes
Scalability
- Importance: UQ Eats must handle a large number of simultaneous users, especially during peak meal hours.
- Measurement: Load testing with simulated concurrent users; response times under peak loads.
- Techniques: Cloud-based infrastructure (e.g., AWS/GCP), microservices architecture, and auto-scaling solutions.
Interoperability
- Importance: Seamless integration with campus facilities, student authentication systems, and payment gateways is essential.
- Measurement: Successful API integrations with UQ’s student login system, campus vendor POS systems, and payment providers.
- Techniques: RESTful API design, OAuth-based authentication, and modular API connections for external services.
Deployability
- Importance: Quick and reliable deployment of updates and new features to maintain service quality.
- Measurement: Deployment automation testing; downtime analysis during rollouts.
- Techniques: Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes), and infrastructure as code (Terraform).
Evaluation
To assess whether UQ Eats successfully meets its objectives, the following evaluation methods will be implemented:
- Load and stress testing: Simulating large user loads to ensure the system scales efficiently.
- Integration testing: Ensuring seamless operation with student authentication and payment systems.
- User feedback and usability testing: Collecting surveys from students and vendors to gauge system effectiveness.
- Performance monitoring: Analysing request/response times, server uptime, and delivery success rates.
- A/B testing of deployment strategies: Comparing different deployment techniques to optimise rollout times and system stability.
“By prioritising scalability, interoperability, and deployability, UQ Eats aims to provide a smooth, efficient, and rewarding food delivery experience tailored specifically for the UQ campus community.”- UQ Eats, 2025