Maroon Recs

Inspiration

Every semester students struggle to navigate the academic maze wrestling with course selection, study space discovery and campus dining challenges. The frustration of blindly choosing classes hunting for quiet study spots and settling for subpar meals creates unnecessary stress and wasted energy. Maroon Recs emerges as the solution transforming this chaotic experience into a streamlined informed journey through personalized recommendations and real-time insights.

What it does

Our website is designed to help students navigate their time at A&M by simplifying decision-making and providing valuable resources. We hope students will use maroon recs to make informed decisions throughout their academic journey.

How we built it

We began using Canva to design the layout and collaborated on a shared Google doc to outline our process and pseudocode. Once we solidified our vision, we implemented it by translating our plan into code with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Challenges we ran into

We encountered several challenges with GitHub, such as overwriting each other’s commits and facing merge conflicts when working on the same page. Additionally, there was a significant amount of missing data that took time to fill in, and we struggled with integrating the front-end and back-end components smoothly. The email page was particularly difficult, as we aimed to have it send real emails, which added an extra layer of complexity.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of the efficient sorting algorithms we've implemented, along with the real-time status updates for places showing as open or closed. Additionally, we put a lot of effort into revamping the UI design, carefully refining the format to ensure it was both functional and visually appealing.

What we learned

We gained valuable experience with OpenAI, deepened our JavaScript skills, and learned how to build a functional UI. Additionally, we developed our ability to connect the front end to the back end seamlessly.

What's next for Maroon List

We plan to expand our existing links to include more locations and add new pages covering topics like dorm rankings, off-campus living, and activities for college students. This will provide comprehensive resources tailored to the College Station area.