UCL Hangout

Allow students with like-minded interests to form groups independently of UCL societies, or within them, at their own pace! For example, students in the Live Music Society can form a band.

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Inspiration

Gatherings in person were previously put on hold due to COVID, making forming friend groups with like-minded interests or goals difficult. In particular, as a member of the Live Music Society, meeting people to form a band was nearly impossible. With UCL Hangout, this makes these kinds of things possible both within UCL societies and outside them.

What it does

Individuals can post groups (to be approved by moderators) with interest tags and descriptions. UCL students can register their interest, interact with the creator of the group, and join if it's a good fit!

How we built it

We used the PERN tech stack (postgres, express, react, and node). The database stores relational data like group names, descriptions, interest tags, their admins, their members, their pending join requests, as well as user data such as name, course, interest tags, groups to which they are active members, admins, and pending members. Node and express enables the backend api, react enables the front end.

Challenges we ran into

Getting the backend to connect to the database was very hacky. None of us had experience with HTML or CSS, so we opted to prototype a user-interface rather than create one that connects to the backend. We did code many of the API calls and the database, and verified that this runs!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Getting the backend to work with the database. Prepare a brief yet content-rich presentation. Distribute work effectively.

What we learned

MongoDB is easier than postgres! Also, for hackathons, use technology closest / most similar to what you're familiar with! We also learned a lot about gaps in UCL's social infrastructure through investigating this idea. We all would actually like to use this app to fill one of these gaps here at UCL!

What's next for UCL Hangout

Finishing all backend api calls. Changing to a MongoDB database. Code the front-end to match our prototype.

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