iProfile

Help me to shine my career path!

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Inspiration

Our social networks are composed of our family members, friends, colleagues and people we met both online and offline. With the advancement of technology and social media, we are able to expand our connections and meet people around the world. However, most of the platforms do not focus on learning and personal development.

Inspired by Devpost, we would like to build a platform that encourages peer learning, networking and allows students to showcase their projects. Our goal is to build a supportive community where students can expand their network, learn new skills, and build up their portfolio.

The current pandemic has a great impact on businesses, companies fired labor and froze recruitment to reduce costs. Many recent graduates and senior students found it hard to get a job or an internship. As a stretch goal, we would like to connect the right talents to recruiters by building a recruitment portal, where recruiters can browse different projects and reach out to students with the right skillsets.

What it does

Student interface

  • Students can sign up with their student email address, full name, university, graduation year, and create a password.
  • During onboarding, they can upload their past projects and fill in the description (project name, contributor, description, awards, link to project).
  • They can log in using email and password.
  • They can edit my profile and add new projects on the profile page. They can view other users’ comments on their projects.
  • They can browse projects in different categories and other student profiles.
  • They can comment or react to other users’ projects.

Recruiter interface

  • Recruiters can sign up with their company email, name, company name, and create a password.
  • Recruiters can browse projects in different categories and student profiles.
  • Recruiters can message students through the in-app chat.

How we built it

  • Low fidelity wireframe using Balsamiq

  • High fidelity wireframe using Figma

  • Front-end development using React/Redux and MaterialUI

  • Uses React hooks to manage React lifecycle.

  • Uses Redux to manage state.

  • Back-end development using node.js, mongoDB and express

  • API endpoints are written using express.js.

  • Database models are created using Mongoose.

  • MongoDB is used to store the project in the cloud.

Challenges we ran into

We are relatively new to react and spent a considerable amount of time debugging. Time management was a problem. There were some merge conflicts, but we were able to resolve them without too many problems. CSS was mostly done by one team member who was extremely skilled at it. Connecting the frontend and backend was somewhat problematic, but we were able to effectively communicate to each other to resolve them problems.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We have completed the UI design of the whole app, and developed a working prototype that is fully functional. We're able to connect the code developed in the frontend with the backend, even though different developers worked on it. The wireframes are extremely nice!!! Shoutout to Ava.

What we learned

We learnt how to use react for front-end development, Redux for state management, some new React hook concepts, and connecting the frontend to the backend.

What's next for iProfile

New Features

Full UI design - including stretch goals

Students

Project collaboration

Students can message other users and invite them to collaborate on a new project. They can add other contributors to their projects and specify their roles.

Virtual meetup

Students can join virtual meetup groups/ pitch sessions to share their projects and get a chance to be featured on the home page.

Competitions

Students can submit their projects to different competitions via the platform, and the awards/ prizes will show up in their achievements.

Recruiter

Recruitment challenges

Recruiters can set up recruitment challenges/ tests/ assessment centers via the platform and assess project applications.

Data analytics

Recruiters can use data analytics to identify students with the right skillsets.

Organizers

Organizer portal

Organizers can post competitions in the platform, assess projects, and announce the winners.

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