Study Buddies

An all-in-one platform that helps you study with your buddies.

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Inspiration

Studying with friends comes with numerous self-explanatory benefits, however, it is often hard to determine where everyone is studying at any given time. Texting or calling doesn't help, because most people turn their phones to work mode when their working. Even if one doesn't want to study with friends, it's often challenging to find a vacant classroom to do so in. There could be classes in there or other people studying inside that are already occupying the space. Imagine walking all the way to 245 Beacon St. from your dorm, and realizing every classroom is occupied.

What it does

Study Buddies is an all-in-one platform where you can easily check what classrooms are occupied by your friends, strangers, or classes. First tap into the building you want to check out from the interactive map on the cover page. Then pick what time and day you'd like to look at. The page will now show all the classrooms in a grid design. The classrooms with classes going on in them will be red and once clicking into it, you can see what class is going on inside (this is a bonus feature that can help you find interesting classes that you may want to sit in on when you have the time). Classrooms that are occupied by you or your friends will also be red, and clicking onto it will show you who is studying in that room.

How we built it

First, we did some web-scraping on the course information website to create a .csv file with all of the classes in 245 Beacon St. Then used a python program to turn that data into a .json file. Connected this with the html and css front end by using javascript.

Challenges we ran into

First of all, we only started ideating at 5:30pm because most of us were at the entrepreneurship conference downstairs, which we understand is our own fault but that was just a challenge we faced. Another is actually coming up with a feasible idea given our 5 hour late start. Also, we found it difficult to make the webpage have live updates, so if one person says they're studying in this room, it'll show up for everyone. Finally, we ran into some trouble actually making a nice-looking webpage because we are all not great at design and art.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This was basically Ian's first time coding, and he learned html and css. Michael also had limited experience with coding, having only taken one CS class before, and he also learned html and css. This was Xander's first time coding front-end, and his first hackathon. So we are actually a very beginner team but we didn't think it would be fair or allowed if we went the beginner route given that the team I was on last year already won it.

What we learned

We learned how to connect data to our front-end using javascript, and many of us learned how to code in html and css.

What's next for Study Buddies

Ensuring the login page works and that the webpage has live updates. Basically ensuring all functions on the back-end work.

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