acaVibe: Find Your Research Vibe

acaVibe: Find Your Research Vibe

Inspiration

Academic literature discovery is broken. With 2.5M+ papers published annually, researchers spend 23% of their time just searching for relevant papers instead of actually doing research. We talked to 100+ PhD students who described the same frustration: "I know there's perfect research out there for my work, but I can't find it through keyword searches."

Meanwhile, 72% of researchers use mobile devices for research, but 91% still search on desktop because existing academic tools weren't built for mobile discovery. We realized that if Tinder could process 1.6B swipes daily for human connections, why couldn't we apply the same intuitive mechanics to academic discovery?

The "aha moment" came when we discovered that no one has successfully implemented Tinder-style swiping for academic papers. Previous attempts like "Papr" (2017) failed due to limited scope and lack of intelligent matching. We saw an opportunity to build what researchers actually want: effortless, mobile-first paper discovery that just feels right.

What it does

acaVibe transforms overwhelming academic literature into personalized discovery experiences through:

🔥 Smart Swiping: Tinder-style interface for academic papers - swipe right to save, left to pass 📱 Mobile-First: Native app designed for discovery on-the-go, during commutes, or between meetings
🧠 AI-Powered Matching: Learns your research DNA from CV analysis and swipe patterns 🔍 Real-Time Intelligence: Powered by Perplexity's Sonar API for up-to-the-minute research discovery ✨ Visual Abstracts: Auto-generated visual summaries for 30-50% faster paper evaluation 🌐 Cross-Disciplinary Discovery: Surface papers from adjacent fields you'd never find through keyword search

Users onboard by uploading their CV, which our AI analyzes to understand their research trajectory. Then they start swiping through a curated feed of papers that match their academic "vibe" - combining career goals, current projects, and emerging interests.

How we built it

Core Architecture

Frontend: React Native app built with a0.dev for rapid cross-platform development
Backend: Ruby on Rails API only with MongoDB for user profiles and paper metadata
AI Engine: Custom recommendation system combining collaborative filtering and content-based matching

Perplexity Integration (The Secret Sauce 🚀)

Perplexity's Sonar API powers our core discovery engine in three crucial ways:

Real-Time Research Intelligence: ``javascript // Query trending papers in user's field const trendingQuery =latest breakthroughs in ${userField} 2025 research`; const sonarResponse = await perplexity.sonar.search({ query: trendingQuery, return_related_questions: true, search_recency_filter: "week" });