Round Table

An educational lightweight tool to seamlessly connect with virtual students of similar interests utilizing GroupMe.

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Inspiration

We found that in a virtual setting it is difficult to connect and meet with new students. Much of our education comes from a collaborative environment among students with similar interests

What it does

We wanted to emulate this environment in a virtual setting by making it easy for students to join GroupMe group chats with students who have similar interests. The app will ask the user to login or register. After that, they will be asked to fill out a questionnaire that we will then use the responses to match and create group chats with other students.

How we built it

We built the UI using ReactJs and Material UI. We also used Google Firebase to host our data on users, groups, and to handle authentication. The development was done using VS code. We were able to utilize an available API made by GroupMe to create the groups.

Challenges we ran into

We were all new to using firebase, so there was a large learning curve when dealing with saving and retrieving the data. We also struggled with updating states of components immediately when using react hooks.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were able to effectively utilize the GroupMe API as well as the firebase database to create an application that is dynamic without the need for hardcoded values.

What we learned

We learned how to implement Google Firebase on the backend of a React JS app. Specifically, using firebase for authentication and as a database to store user inputs regarding personal information and interests. In addition, we learned how to implement Material UI in React for the User Interface to create a better design by implementing their components.

What's next for Round Table

We would like to expand to encompass a greater range of students, branching out from college to both grade school and graduate school. Also, we would like to expand to a more vast network of users by allowing it to be implemented into the workplace to connect more people. The questionnaire will also be expanded to get more personalized results and allow for more specific connections to be made.

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