The University of Pennsylvania is embarking on a plan to replace its magnetic stripe-based PennCards with smart cards that will enable contactless access to academic buildings, college housing and other controlled areas, reports The Daily Pennsylvanian.

The move is a joint project of the university’s Division of Public Safety, Information Systems & Computing and Business Services to upgrade its existing technology and make access more efficient.

The university plans to pilot a contactless system this fall at the school’s new Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology that’s scheduled to open in November. Researchers, faculty and students who work in the building will test the contactless system. The pilot will include different layers of security designed to protect access to more sensitive areas.

If the pilot is successful, it could take up to five years to implement the system throughout the university.

Read more here.

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