Study Brew

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Inspiration

We were inspired by the most common problem students and workers in general encounter when they know they have a long day of work in front of them: a never changing study or working environment! No better way to have a change of air than to find a cute cafe. Since cafes are usually full of hard-working individuals, we thought it would be interesting to try and connect everyone to allow exchanges, networking, small talk, and of course a boost of motivation. This is why we wanted to create StudyBrew.

What it does

StudyBrew allows logged-in users to choose and connect to a full-time running Pomodoro timer and a live chat. The timer syncs every user on the same study schedule to permit them to chat and ask questions during their study break. We also hope that StudyBrew will encourage people to go up to other users and create new professional or non-professional relations. It also opens opportunities for working professionals to help and share their expertise with students who might have higher-level questions.

How we built it

We built the frontend with React and the backend with Firebase.

Challenges we ran into

The first challenge was getting started since neither of us worked with React nor any sort of database before. When the overwhelming feeling passed, we encountered a major challenge when we tried to implement the live chat room. The lack of knowledge of databases caused an issue with sending the messages sent inside the database and retrieving them to display them afterward. We tried using Socket.IO at first and succeeded but opted for Firebase for its simplicity. Firebase also allowed us to view the working database and the messages.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The chatroom can be accessed from every computer that has the code.

What we learned

We all completely learned from scratch React and how to use Firebase. We also learned a lot about connecting front and back end of code and how to make them communicate.

What's next for Study Brew

We want to pursue working on StudyBrew after. We think it has a lot of potential and we would love to transform it into an extension. Also, we want to implement a satellite server to allow people in the same cafe only to chat.