Zot Sync

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  App/Website Logo Concept

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  Profile Page

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  Calendar Page

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  Friends Page

Inspiration

For my first two quarters at UCI, I struggled through my giant, unfamiliar lecture classes and general education requirements without the support of my peers, because I found it hard to reach out to the many strangers (most of whom already had friends sitting next to them) to help me. If only there were an app that could not only bridge the connection to those hundreds of strangers in my classes, while also helping me coordinate my own schedule with my friends.

What it does

Ever felt lost in a sea of unfamiliar faces on the first day of class? Zot Sync changes that. Our app revolutionizes course selection by helping you coordinate schedules with friends, ensuring you're never alone in lecture halls again. But it's more than just about companionship – studies show that learning with peers boosts academic performance and retention. With Zot Sync, you'll enhance your college experience, build stronger friendships, and improve your grades. Don't just attend classes; thrive in them with your squad by your side. Zot Sync: Where friendship meets academic excellence.

Challenges we ran into

As first-time hackathon participants, we faced numerous challenges. Time management was a significant hurdle – balancing feature development, bug fixes, and presentation preparation within the tight deadline was stressful. We also struggled with merge conflicts in Git, as we were all new to collaborative coding. Additionally, integrating the various components of our stack proved more complex than we initially anticipated. There were moments of frustration when features didn't work as expected, and debugging took longer than we hoped. Lastly, working with APIs to fetch real-time course data was a new experience for us and presented its own set of challenges.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Despite the challenges, we're immensely proud of what we achieved. First and foremost, we completed a functional prototype of Zot Sync within the hackathon timeframe – a feat we weren't sure was possible when we started. We're also proud of how we came together as a team, leveraging each other's strengths and supporting one another through the tough moments. Learning and implementing new technologies in such a short time is another accomplishment we're celebrating. Finally, we're proud of the potential impact our project could have on students' lives, potentially making their college experience more enjoyable and academically rewarding.

What we learned

This hackathon was a crash course in real-world software development. We learned the importance of clear communication within a team and how to divide tasks effectively. We gained practical experience with full-stack development, from designing user interfaces to managing databases. Git and version control became much clearer to us through hands-on use. We also learned the value of minimum viable products and iterative development – focusing on core features first and then expanding. Perhaps most importantly, we learned how to persevere through challenges, think creatively to solve problems, and the power of collaboration in bringing an idea to life.

What's next for Zot Sync

Moving forward, we see great potential for Zot Sync. Our immediate plans include refining the user interface based on feedback, improving the algorithm for schedule matching, and adding features like course reviews and professor ratings. We also want to implement a chat function to allow users to communicate within the app. In the long term, we aim to expand Zot Sync beyond UCI, adapting it for other universities. We're also considering integrating machine learning to provide personalized course recommendations based on a student's academic history and career goals.

Built With

• anteater-api
• css
• flask
• github
• html
• javascript
• python
• react
• visual-studio-code
• web-storm