SlugLabs

n8n Workflow

Inspiration

We noticed that it is difficult for students to find research opportunities. Most opportunities are not centralized, and students often have to cold email professors without knowing if a position even exists. This process can be confusing, time consuming, and disorganized, especially when tracking emails and responses. We wanted to create a single web app where students can find research opportunities, see relevant listings, and manage applications and submissions all in one place.

What it does

SlugLabs is a web app that helps students discover research opportunities that match their background and interests. Users can upload their resume, view available research opportunities, receive resume based matches, and generate a draft outreach email to professors or labs. The goal is to reduce uncertainty, save time, and make the research application process more accessible and structured.

How we built it

We used MongoDB to store research opportunities, user data, and application related information. We integrated the Gemini chat model to follow structured prompts that match resumes with relevant research opportunities and generate personalized email drafts. We used n8n to design and manage backend workflows, starting from document upload and processing through each automated step. Claude Code helped us with web app development and debugging. We also used Balsamiq to create wireframes and design the initial user interface.

Challenges we ran into

One major challenge was fully connecting the n8n backend workflows with the web app frontend. While individual components worked, integrating everything smoothly within the limited hackathon time was difficult. With more time, we would improve reliability and ensure the workflows operate seamlessly end to end.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of

We are proud of successfully building functional n8n workflows, implementing Auth0 authentication, scraping research opportunity data, and storing it in MongoDB. We also pulled this data into the frontend and demonstrated resume based matching and email drafting functionality.

What we learned

We learned how to use tools like MongoDB and n8n, but more importantly, we learned how critical it is to design both the frontend and backend together. Building workflows is only effective when they are properly connected to the user interface. Understanding how to tie frontend interactions with backend logic is essential for creating a smooth and functional web app.

What’s next for SlugLabs

Next, we want to expand the number of research opportunities available and improve the recommendation system. Our goal is to make matches even more accurate and closely aligned with each user’s resume and interests, while continuing to improve the overall user experience.