UBC Pair

UBC Pair replaces endless swiping with one curated weekly match. Using interests, personality, and availability, it helps UBC students form real connections and go on real dates.

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Inspiration

Modern dating apps often prioritize quantity over quality. Endless swiping can make dating feel overwhelming, superficial, and disconnected from real-world interaction.

As students at UBC, we wanted to design something simpler and more intentional: a platform that encourages meaningful connections instead of constant scrolling. We were inspired by the idea of slowing dating down and focusing on compatibility rather than volume.

UBC Pair was created to give students one thoughtful match per week, based on shared interests, personality traits, lifestyle preferences, and availability.

What it does

UBC Pair is a matchmaking platform designed specifically for UBC students. Instead of swiping through hundreds of profiles, users receive one highly compatible match each week.

The platform analyzes:

  • Personality traits (MBTI and lifestyle preferences)
  • Shared interests
  • Demographic preferences
  • Schedule availability

Using this information, UBC Pair generates a compatibility score and pairs users with someone they are most aligned with.

Once matched, the platform suggests:

  • A time when both users are available
  • A location on campus or in the area
  • A personalized date idea generated with AI

The goal is to move beyond digital matching and encourage real-world interactions.

How we built it

UBC Pair was built as a full-stack web application.

Frontend:

  • Next.js (React) for the UI and routing
  • Tailwind CSS for styling and responsive design

Backend:

  • Firebase Firestore for user profiles, preferences, and match storage
  • Custom compatibility algorithm that evaluates shared interests, personality traits, and lifestyle similarity
  • Schedule overlap detection to recommend realistic meeting times

AI integration:

  • Google Gemini API generates personalized date ideas based on both users’ interests and the suggested location.

Additional features:

  • Weekly match persistence
  • Email notifications for new matches
  • Profile customization with interests and availability selection

Challenges we ran into

One major challenge was designing a fair compatibility algorithm that considered multiple factors without becoming overly complicated. Balancing personality similarity, shared interests, and user preferences required careful weighting.

Another challenge was preventing duplicate matches. We needed to ensure that once two users were paired, they wouldn't be matched again with someone else during that cycle.

We also worked through issues with data structure design in Firestore, making sure profile information, questionnaire responses, and match data were stored efficiently.

Integrating AI for personalized date suggestions also required experimentation with prompts to generate meaningful and relevant recommendations.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud that we were able to build a fully functioning matchmaking system in a short time.

Key accomplishments include:

  • Designing a compatibility scoring algorithm
  • Creating a clean and intuitive user interface
  • Generating personalized AI date suggestions
  • Matching users based on real schedule overlap
  • Building a complete end-to-end matching experience

Most importantly, UBC Pair transforms a digital interaction into a real-world meeting opportunity.

What we learned

Throughout this project we learned how to:

  • Design a compatibility algorithm that balances multiple variables
  • Structure scalable user data in Firebase
  • Integrate AI APIs to enhance user experience
  • Build and iterate quickly under hackathon time constraints
  • Focus on solving a real user problem rather than just building features

We also learned how small UX choices (like suggesting a date time and location) can significantly improve the chances of users actually meeting.

What's next for UBC Pair

Our vision is to expand UBC Pair beyond a prototype into a campus-wide platform.

Future improvements include:

  • Campus email verification to ensure users are UBC students
  • Improved matching algorithms with machine learning
  • Safety and moderation features
  • Event-based group matching
  • Mobile app support

Long-term, UBC Pair could expand to other universities and become a more intentional alternative to swipe-based dating apps.

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