Student Develops Snow-Delay Alarm App For High School Students

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GROVE CITY (KDKA) -- Jake Murphy, of Wexford, is a freshman at Grove City College who, after experiencing weather-related school delays in high school, has developed an app with a friend that could help every high school kid, and their parents, sleep in.

"In high school I remember waking up, and I'd always check on the news sites to see if my school had a delay or a cancellation," recalls Murphy. "And then I'd have to reset an alarm based off that."

The app, called Delay Alarm, automatically recalculates your alarm if your school district delays or cancels.

"The app is an independent alarm clock, and when you go into the app and set an alarm, it will wake you up in the morning," Murphy told KDKA money editor Jon Delano on Thursday. "However, if your school delays, it will push your alarm two hours. And if your school cancels, it will terminate your alarm entirely, so it is completely based off your school status."

After you download the app, you designate your school district, and then when news sources report a delay or cancellation, says Murphy, the alarm is automatically adjusted to let you sleep.

"Right now, I just want to help people out," he said. "I want to help students save sleep because I know that's something I would have really wanted when I was a student."

So far, the app only includes school districts in the Pittsburgh and Boston region.

As for cost?

"I am starting off with the app as free, for a limited time," Murphy said.

The computer science student, who has interned at Carnegie Mellon, wants to focus on cyber security issues as a career.

But in the meantime, he's happy to help high school and middle students on snowy days.

The Delay Alarm app is available only on Apple products at the moment -- iPhones and iPads -- and it just might give your kids a couple extra hours of sleep.