DTU Connect

Inspiration

At DTU, it can be surprisingly difficult to find students who share similar technical interests or to discover active societies and projects happening around campus. Information is scattered across WhatsApp groups, Instagram pages, and word of mouth. I wanted to build something that makes it easier for students to connect, collaborate, and find relevant opportunities in one place — that’s how DTUConnect started.

What it does

DTUConnect is a simple web platform that helps DTU students:

Find other students with similar skills and interests

Discover societies (active and inactive) through tags and domains

Explore relevant hackathons, projects, or events

The goal is to make it easier for students to connect and engage with the DTU community — without having to search across multiple platforms.

How we built it

I built the platform using Python for the backend and a straightforward web interface for the frontend. To make the matching system work, I used the Google Gemini API to turn text data (like user interests and society descriptions) into vector embeddings. These embeddings helped find similarities between users, societies, and opportunities. All data was stored in simple JSON files for quick testing and updates during development.

Challenges we ran into

Since I was working solo, balancing development, debugging, and UI design within two days was challenging. Integrating the API smoothly and making sure the matching logic gave meaningful results took time. I also had to structure the data carefully to make the recommendations accurate and fast.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This was my first hackathon as a solo participant, and I managed to go from idea to working prototype within the weekend. I’m proud that the matching system worked as intended and that I was able to build something meaningful for the DTU community.

What we learned

I learned how to use text embeddings for similarity-based matching, how to design a quick prototype under time pressure, and how to structure a project so it’s functional even with limited resources. It also gave me confidence to take on bigger, end-to-end projects in the future.

What's next for DTUConnect

I plan to add features like team formation for hackathons, chat options between users, and verified listings for societies. I also want to make the platform open to the entire DTU community so that students can use it to genuinely connect, collaborate, and grow together.

Built With

• googlegeminiapi
• python
• streamlit