Students Meet

A web application that looks to streamline the process of virtual student collaboration

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Inspiration

Students Meet was inspired from the lack of virtual collaboration students can utilize, especially during COVID-19. This application seeks to open up an opportunity for students to help each other academically and socially. Not only will this open up learning from a variety of experienced individuals, but it will also allow students to make a diverse and widespread group of friends while increasing their network connections. Students Meet streamlines the process of getting help while taking a portion of the burden of teaching off of teachers who are already overburdened due to the virtual environment.

What it does

The prime functionality is broken into two main parts: Finding a mentor and Becoming a mentor. By creating a database from scratch, we were able to create a small potential of what Students Meet could be. The form includes a diverse series of courses with a large potential for mass expansion. On the search component, finding a mentor utilizes a personally designed algorithm that takes the search queries and matches and ranks mentors according to the queries. This is visible within the table's color ranking system that displays green, yellow, and red based on the quality of the match.

How we built it

Students Meet's tech stack includes PERN Stack (PostgreSQL, Express, React Native, Node.js), Material UI, React Router, and React Icons.

Challenges we ran into

As a team, this was our first time developing a full-stack application alone. With most of the team learning React JS and SQL for the first time, we had to spend a large portion of time pair programming and teaching each other the basics. After that, deploying a server to a production link caused several errors that no one was familiar with.

Accomplishments that we are proud of

We are proud of not only the sleek design that is both elegant and efficient but also the algorithm that finds and ranks mentors with a color-coded display.

What's next for Students Meet

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage on across the world, every facet of our life is continually being forced to adapt. Students Meet provides a framework that can allow students to collaborate in a socially distanced world. What is currently a website for class help could easily expand to provide mentorship across every part of our lives. Coupling our website with more advanced technologies, such as machine learning, in the future could allow quicker and more expansive collaboration. Additionally, once people have met a mentor, a chatting or blogging system could easily be added to the website in the future to further bolster communication and the exchange of ideas. Whether it is preparing for the LSAT or learning about local activist groups, Students Meet has the ability to grow into a website that can positively influence just about anyone!

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