New alarm-clock app gets your day off to a fun start

Two EPFL Master's students, an EPFL PhD student, a UNIL PhD student and an EPFL alumnus have teamed up to develop a new alarm app called Wakeit. The app draws on users' social-media contacts to make getting out of bed a little easier. Getting up in the morning can be unpleasant, especially if you're woken by the shrill cry of your alarm clock in the wee hours of the morning - who hasn't hit the snooze button once or twice? But it doesn't have to be that way: a group of friends has come up with an app to make mornings a little less arduous by adding a touch of humor, or as they put it, by "turning grumpy mornings into funny mornings." The team members, who met at EPFL or through the Innosuisse Business Concept program , are about to launch Wakeit - a free alarm-clock app powered by social media. Its main target is the Generation Z cohort, for which this kind of online interaction is perfectly natural. "Most alarm-clock apps out there today work pretty much the same way. We wanted to change things up, adding an element of fun and variety," says Sebastien Savidan, who graduated from EPFL with a Master's degree in microengineering. "Our app wakes people up with a selection of stories and photos that open when it's time to rise and shine .