Superhero HQ

Dashboard
Planning

Inspiration

We were inspired by the company’s mission to empower kids to learn new concepts, connect with great mentors, and increase diversity in STEM. Their focus on giving students the freedom to choose mentors based on personal preferences, such as race, gender, and areas of interest, aligns with our passion for creating inclusive learning environments.

What it does

Superhero HQ automates the mentor-mentee matching process, tracks key performance indicators, and displays analytics like sign-ups, feedback, achievements, and matches on a streamlined dashboard. The platform integrates with Firebase, Twilio, Google APIs, and Zapier to automate notifications and scheduling, ensuring smooth workflows for both mentors and students.

How we built it

We built the platform with a front-end in Streamlit and Geckoboard to display live analytics. Firestore serves as the database, and cloud functions trigger real-time event handling, such as automatic matching when users sign up. Twilio and Zapier help automate email, SMS notifications, and Zoom scheduling, while Google Geocoding API calculates distances to enable in-person mentoring when possible.

Challenges we ran into

We faced technical difficulties launching cloud functions, encountered Firebase setup issues, and resolved version conflicts when integrating individual contributions. However, the challenges strengthened our collaboration, as we improved communication and helped each other grasp new concepts.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of building a fully functional front end, back end, and database in a short time frame. Our greatest accomplishment is the teamwork we fostered within the group and with the community, supporting each other both technically and mentally throughout the project.

What we learned

We learned not only technical skills like cloud functions and database management but also the importance of clear communication, teamwork, and mutual support. The experience helped us become more effective in collaborating and integrating diverse perspectives.

What's next for Superhero HQ

Our next steps include scaling the platform to reach more users, promoting it to attract more kids, and continuing to increase diversity and inclusion. We plan to improve the efficiency of our code, incorporate more advanced analytics tools, and deepen our conversations with the company to further align with its vision and goals.