This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: In early 2026, the University of Illinois Division of Public Safety was facing a challenge. It had 11 security guards it planned to convert to community service officers, which meant they would change from being based in one building to working a whole beat.
"Their jobs completely changed," said Lt. Ty Ledbetter, administrative lieutenant for the division, who also manages the community service officer program and officer training. Public Safety needed a way to get the officers up to speed, and quickly.
Its solution was to call associate professor Yun Huang, who ultimately built the MapInsights program. Huang, whose research focuses on human-AI collaboration and interactions, was already at work on interactive mapping software. She started working with Ledbetter and Jennifer Whiting from the university's Police Training Institute in March, and by May had created MapInsights, a web-based training platform that converts the memorization of a large real-world operating environment into structured, measurable practice.
For a public safety officer, knowing every building on a beat is essential. However, memorizing more than 1,000 buildings on the University of Illinois campus, which is divided into three beats on roughly a north-to-south basis, can be tedious and time-consuming. Furthermore, the division's test of campus geography, on which trainees must score 80% or higher before moving to the next training module, was a clunky web form that didn't even save progress.
In contrast, MapInsights is highly reactive. MapInsights identifies each building by name but also by the number used by the campus Facilities & Services office. All maps are connected to the university's archaeological services, so if a building number changes in the system, it will change on the map.
When the assessment begins, all buildings are outlined in red. Each time a user clicks on a building and identifies it correctly, the red changes to green. Progress is savable, and the interface is reactive.
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