Match

Match Logo

Inspiration

For a college student in the COVID-19 pandemic, a reliable study buddy or nurturing upperclassman has become SO difficult to find. Online classes prevent students from making these important connections, and many of our peers have expressed how difficult and lonely classes became since the transition to Zoom University. Especially for freshmen who have never physically sat in a university lecture hall with their peers, building these connections is awkward at best, and impossible at worst.

We were determined to find a solution to the lack of human connections in Zoom university. We devised Match: a mobile app allowing students to find their ideal study partner, mentor in their major, or mentee to take under their wing. We hope to bring Match to university campuses across the country, building lasting and true connections between students.

What it does

Match grants students the ability to find the perfect study partner they’re looking for with just a few quick taps. Regardless of whether you’re a mentor eager to share your expertise, a mentee seeking someone to guide you along, or just someone looking for a study buddy to work side-by-side with, Match will help you find your match with ease. Users will complete a personal profile by sharing information about the subjects they’re interested in and the role they’re looking to fill in a study match, and can then filter through other users until they’ve found someone who sounds like a perfect study match for them!

How we built it

Our team used Android Studio to develop in Kotlin. We used Firebase from Google Cloud to store data from our users with FireStore, and matched them with the best individuals based on their collected preferences.

Challenges we ran into

As first-time users of Android Studio and Kotlin and unfamiliarity with mobile app development, our team found ourselves off to a slow start. The task of building an app from scratch was daunting, and we quickly realized that 12 hours would go by in an instant. We began with some difficulty setting up our project and connecting different pages. We struggled the most with files working behind the scenes that caused errors inhibiting our progress. Additionally, we had a few hiccups with git but were able to work together and get back on track. Despite these roadblocks, we worked well together as a team and were able to create the beginnings of what we believe to be a very relevant and impactful app.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

If someone had told us that we’d be creating our own app from scratch using an IDE and a language we have little to no previous knowledge in, honestly we would’ve been impressed. Having done that, we are so proud of the final product we’ve created because it represents our ability to learn, adapt, and create quickly. Despite the outcome, this experience taught us about perseverance against insurmountable odds and gave us an opportunity to try something new.

What we learned

Given our lack of prior experience with mobile development, our team was exposed to many new tools and technologies and learned lots from each of them. We first learned how to navigate Android Studio and set up a project from scratch, then progressed to developing an understanding of how to create component-filled displays and the connections to navigate between them. We then learned more about different Firebase technologies and how to add the proper dependencies to integrate them into our project. Having never used Cloud Firestore before, we learned how to translate user input from a few simple taps on the screen to a fully fledged user data entry, as well as how to retrieve that data entry back again and display its contents nicely on the screen. Finally, we made huge strides in our knowledge of the coding language Kotlin, a language new to all of us.

What's next for Match

After a short 12 hours, we’re extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished, but know that there is so much more room for improvement. For starters, one of the most important aspects of technology: privacy. We plan to implement a user authentication system that would keep match information secure as well as save previous matches. Additionally, we’re determined to incorporate more variety in possible match information, including adding more subjects, study times, school/university, location, etc. Lastly, we want to improve our user experience by creating a more aesthetic and accessible interface.