Inspiration
Our group is comprised entirely of students at UT Dallas, a University which is known to have cultivated a relatively anti-social environment. As such, it can prove difficult to form study groups for classes we might be having some difficulty in. This has provoked us into searching for a viable solution to this issue. A way to make forming study groups easier, and more instantaneous than ever.
What it does
Study Sync serves to amend the issue of struggling to find people to study with by placing students into secure video-chat rooms, ensuring that long study sessions are much more enjoyable, and palatable with friends. Essentially, a student will log on to the website, and be paired with another student with the goal objective of studying together.
How we built it
The site is coded in JavaScript, but most principally we are using a software called Jitsi. A secure video streaming service that will be utilized on our site once students are matched. The actual site is integrated with AWS Cloud, and Firebase. Being built off of the latest and greatest of software technology, we ensure a viable future proofing, which will render the site easily updatable as we flesh it out over time.
Challenges we ran into
Stable internet access was difficult to achieve at first, causing several errors and disconnections sporadically. As we debugged this error, we discovered that it was because of the lack of SSL connections. In addition to this, the actual hackathon was situation on an ice rink. The temperatures were very low at times, which severely inhibited progress. Finally, understanding the AWS framework, and getting Jitsi to function with little to no prior knowledge of the software wasn't easy. We had to learn a whole lot on the fly, and it was hard keeping progress steady at times.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of our project's integration with AWS and Firebase. These allow our project to be easily expandable in the future, while providing a flexible group study environment for our users. We are also very much proud of getting Jitsi to work so seamlessly in such a short period of time. Considering we had no prior experience using the software, let alone using it in tandem with AWS, and Firebase.
What we learned
We entered HackDFW with an objective to learn. By using new frameworks and technologies, we were able to broaden our knowledge, specifically related to web hosting and backend development. We learned how to coordinate and operate efficiently as a team. We all broadened our knowledge in regards to using AWS Cloud, and Firebase. Additionally, we gained some experience using jitsi for the first time, which I'd hazard to guess will become a much more significant and useful piece of software as work becomes more and more doable remotely.
What's next for Study Sync
We plan on expanding Study Sync by making it more specific to the different disciplines that a student may be interested in pursuing. Through features like allowing students to select what they're studying, and from there what specifically within that subject they are having difficulty with. Upon selection greater priority will be made for students who are likely to be of use to each other. This aforementioned use will be discerned based on how proficient each student is in the other's respective issue. While a high priority will still be maintained with regards to ensuring that each student is studying the same topic. So they aren't on different pages. As this sorting becomes better and better our site will become just that much more useful.
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