squirrl

Landing Page
Dashboard
Assignment List and Course Leaderboard
Friends Tab
Item Shop and Item Equip
Avatar and Nickname Edit
Battles

Inspiration

ADHD affects how people focus, stay motivated, and see themselves in academic spaces. For a lot of students, struggling with organization or deadlines starts to feel like a personal failure rather than a mismatch between the system and how they work. With the theme of identity in mind, we wanted to build something that reframes productivity—not as discipline or perfection, but as a personalized experience that reflects how different students learn and stay engaged.

What it does

Squirrel turns real academic data into a game. It syncs with your courses and assignments, organizes them into a single journal, and adds progression systems like XP, levels, battles, and social interaction to make staying on top of school feel motivating instead of stressful.

How we built it

We built Squirrel with a React and TypeScript frontend, Firebase for authentication and data storage, and the Canvas LMS API to pull in real course and assignment information. The app updates user data dynamically and supports social features like friends, battles, and avatars.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was working with the Canvas LMS API. Many API calls were blocked by CORS policies, which forced us to rethink how we handled requests and data flow. Integrating external systems reliably while staying within security constraints took a lot of trial and error.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We created a scalable tool that directly addresses a real issue faced by our peers. UofT is known for high academic stress and a weak sense of community, so we combined academics and social interaction into a single experience. We’re also proud of the modular avatar customization, which lets users express their social identity inside the app.

What we learned

This project pushed us into unfamiliar territory. We learned how to work with the Canvas LMS API, use an external database for the first time, and build a full-stack system. For most of our team, this was also our first serious experience with JavaScript and TypeScript in a large project.

What's next for Squirrel

Next, we want to turn Squirrel into a mobile app. We plan to add GPS-based class attendance to replace honor-system check-ins, expand support to other institutions and LMS platforms, and improve avatar visuals with custom art. Long term, we want to analyze archived course data to identify study patterns and help users plan their workload more effectively.