MyGobbler

discover
timeline
chat gobbler

Inspiration

Our team’s inspiration for creating My Gobbler came from a common problem: finding events in Blacksburg. Imagine you have nothing to do on a Monday afternoon. You could catch a Hokie game, check out a job fair, or try out a club you’ve been interested in. But discovering these opportunities often means checking three or four different websites, like Gobbler Connect and HokieSports. On top of that, some clubs forget to post on Gobbler Connect and only share events in their own Discord servers, making them easy to miss.

We created My Gobbler to bring these opportunities together in one place, helping students discover events, get involved, and feel connected to the Blacksburg community. Our slogan is: “Don’t be left out. Let your Gobbler help you out.” What it does

My Gobbler is an all-in-one event finder for VT students, made by VT students, that looks up club events, Hokie football games, campus activities, and even academic deadlines. My Gobbler also has many other features, like Discord bot capabilities that allow you to announce events you host in a public Discord server directly on My Gobbler for others to see.

Our main feature on My Gobbler is what we call “Your Featured Timeline.” My Gobbler asks users about their preferences and generates a timeline of events that best fit them. On top of that, users can change their timeline length from one day to the next week.

Our final feature is Ask Gobbler, a personal assistant that helps users narrow down their event search to find an event that perfectly fits them.

How we built it

We built My Gobbler as a full-stack web application. For the frontend, we used TypeScript, React, and Expo to create a clean and simple website that students can easily use. We wanted the design to feel friendly, fun, and connected to Virginia Tech, while still making it easy to search for events fast.

For the backend, we used TypeScript, Node.js, and Express to collect and organize events from different sources. We pulled in events from places like Gobbler Connect, HokieSports, academic calendars, and Discord. Then we stored the event information in MongoDB so the app could search, filter, and display events in one place.

We also built features like saved events, personalized recommendations, event photos, deadline reminders, and Ask Gobbler to make the website feel more useful than just a normal calendar. Challenges we ran into

One big challenge we ran into was that Virginia Tech events are spread across many different websites. Some events are on Gobbler Connect, some are on HokieSports, some are academic deadlines, and some are only posted in Discord servers. Because of that, we had to figure out how to bring all of this information together in a way that felt organized.

Another challenge was making the event cards look good even when some events did not have images. We solved this by adding fallback photos for campus events and sports events so the website still looks polished.

We also had to think about how to make recommendations that were actually helpful. Students have different schedules and different interests, so My Gobbler needed to feel personal without becoming too complicated.

What we learned

We learned a lot about building a real full-stack project as a team. We learned how to connect a frontend, backend, and database together, and how much work goes into making data from different places feel like one clean experience.

We also learned that design matters a lot. Even if the backend works, students are more likely to use the website if it feels simple, friendly, and easy to understand.

Most importantly, we learned how useful this idea could be for students. There are already so many great events happening around Virginia Tech, but students need a better way to find them.

What's next for JARA

JARA plans to continue improving My Gobbler to make it the best all-in-one event finder in Blacksburg. We want to add Canvas and Google Calendar integrations so students can stay on top of assignments and discover events that fit their busy schedules.

We also want to improve Ask Gobbler so it can give even smarter event suggestions, add more campus organizations, and make it easier for clubs to post their events directly to My Gobbler.