Imagine being inside a classroom with more than 300 students and when you raise your hand to answer a question, the professor calls you by name.

In September 2007 David Hurley, manager of computing in the Department of Biology, created a program that helps professors recognize their students by name and face called Biopics.

“The students need to know that you care. If you know their names, they feel more a part of the class,” said biology professor Merrill B. Hille.

With Biopics, students sit in front of a computer with a built-in camera, enter their student number, and take their own picture. After verified by the student, the photo and student number are uploaded to the server.

Professors can then divide all the student pictures according to lab sections or other preferred groupings. When finished, Biopics creates a printable PDF file with 30 student pictures and names per page that professors can memorize.

Before Biopics, the same work would be done by hand and could take as long as 10 hours.

“It’s a huge time saver and … it’s incredibly easy,” said professor Alison J. Crowe. “Also, the program makes it very easy to e-mail students who don’t have a photo on file.”

Biopics also reduces confusion, professor Karen Peterson said.

“I would try to have students write their names down for me, but I sometimes couldn’t read their handwriting or names would get out of order with what I had in the photos,” she said. “Biopics simply makes it much easier for me to get the same information organized.”

So far, student responses have been positive.

“I think students are happier knowing that I am involved with them as individuals rather than just their statistics on tests,” Petersen said. “Typically they are pleasantly surprised when I can call them by name.”

Professor Jonathon Brown, a social psychologist at the UW, attests to the benefits of Biopics.

“I think this is a very good idea. First it will help professors forge connections with their students,” he said. “I also think these photographs will help students maintain proper classroom manners.”

He explained the steady decline in classroom etiquette at the UW in the past 20 years.

“There is a large literature in social psychology showing that people who are identifiable are more likely to conform to social norms than are those who are anonymous, so I think having these pictures will help students behave better,” Brown said.

As of now, only the biology department has a program like Biopics, but Hurley would be happy to make the program compatible with any other department. He said the ideal would be for the Office of Registrar to take on this project, since it has all student photographs on file.

Until the registrar is able to get to this project, Hurley said he’s happy to make Biopics available to anyone who wants it.

[Reach contributing writer Joy Yagi at development@thedaily.washington.edu.]