Inspiration
A team member here was a STEM director at the City of Brampton, and he witnessed “COVID kids” who missed out on the social skills needed for in-person events. He noticed this gap in communication skills, especially when it came to event networking. We also saw a lot of people at hackathons who were too shy to approach big tech companies, even though they had the potential to make great connections. We thought, “What if networking could be less awkward and more fun?” And just like that, Networkia was born.
What it does
Networkia turns networking into a competitive, game-like experience. Participants at events earn points by completing challenges, meeting new people, and unlocking achievements. It’s designed to make connections less about awkward small talk and more about meaningful interactions that drive real relationships. Think of it like a networking game where everyone wins—except the shy ones.
How we built it
We built Networkia using a combination of PyTorch, Unity, FastAPI, Pydantic, Pickle, and MongoDB. PyTorch was used for machine learning to help identify key features that drive meaningful interactions, Unity powered the immersive game experience, and FastAPI + Pydantic handled the backend to keep everything running smoothly. Pickle was our trusty sidekick for storing embeddings, while MongoDB managed the data and user interactions. It was a mix of AI, gaming, and a lot of caffeine.
Challenges we ran into
The main challenge was getting the PyTorch model to work properly for analyzing interactions and making real-time recommendations. Unity was tricky, as building an interactive game that wasn’t just a glorified PowerPoint presentation proved to be… well, a challenge. And don’t get us started on Pickle. Storing embeddings felt like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole—except the peg was a neural network and the hole was the database.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We’re pretty proud of making networking actually fun and effective. Who knew people would want to talk to strangers just to get some points? We also managed to get the whole system working end-to-end, with seamless interaction between the AI, the game, and the backend. Plus, we didn’t break anything major (which is more than we can say for most projects).
What we learned
We learned that people are really competitive when it comes to networking. We also learned a lot about integrating different technologies like Unity and PyTorch, as well as the fun of trying to keep everything in sync. Most importantly, we learned that the real challenge is making something that feels natural, engaging, and most importantly—fun. Oh, and how to deal with Pickle errors. We learned way too much about that.
What's next for Networkia
Next, we plan to expand Networkia to handle larger-scale events, like conferences and expos. We want to add more features, like custom challenges based on specific industries or roles, and introduce leaderboards that show who’s making the most connections. We’re also looking at adding real-time analytics so event organizers can see who’s connecting, how well they’re networking, and maybe even spot future collaborators. No more shyness, just pure networking domination.
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