SlugConnect

Inspiration

Our mission is to create a welcoming and inclusive community where university students can easily connect with like-minded individuals and form meaningful relationships. Through our app, we strive to break down social barriers and provide opportunities for students to expand their social circles, discover new interests, and enhance their university experience. We are committed to creating a safe and supportive environment where students can freely express themselves and build lasting connections. This is encapsulated in our motto, "Built by slugs for slugs!"

What it does

Our website provides the framework for students with a Santa Cruz email address to sign up for SlugConnect and meet like-minded slugs. We created a Santa Cruz authentication where you need a @ucsc.edu domain to create an account, alongside implementing a feature where a student can upload a photo of themselves and it automatically creates a bitmoji for their profile!

How we built it

We focused on using React, Next.js, and Chakra UI to iterate on our website's design.

Challenges we ran into

We were unable to create a database and hook it up to our information. We also struggled a lot with the design and in the general implementation of our ideas as we were using a new language.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud of our ideas and our landing page as we were able to flesh out the design the most. We are also proud of the bitmoji converter and the Goole Cloud Oauth for filtering UCSC emails.

What we learned

We learned how to use Chakra UI elements and typescript. We also used how to use Google Cloud API alongside partitioning work according to our strengths and weaknesses.

What's next for SlugConnect

We plan on continuing with the project and most importantly connecting the database and fleshing out the overall layout and design of the website. We want to add customizable bitmoji elements (similar to that of SnapChat) or even shift to a slug avatar with customizable accessories. It is also important that we finish the match-making algorithm and the profile customization. After finishing, we would like to pitch our idea and try to publicize it in order to promote a connected slug community!