Fwend

Inspiration

My personal experiences at university have greatly influenced me. It’s a place where you’re constantly on the lookout for your next best friend but finding the right one can be challenging. Sometimes, the person you thought was your best friend turns out to be not quite what you expected. As university students, we’re often swamped with work, making the search for a best friend time-consuming. Despite our busy schedules, we all yearn for that special bond with a best friend. Moreover, the challenge of finding a best friend in university is further compounded by social anxiety. It’s not just about finding time in our busy schedules, but also about overcoming the fear of initiating conversations and forming new relationships. This can make the quest for a best friend even more daunting. But remember, it’s okay to take things at your own pace. Everyone’s journey is unique.

What it does

Our app is a dynamic tool designed to help university students form compatible relationships within their immediate environment, be it in class or the school hall. It streamlines the process of finding your next potential best friend, saving you time and effort.

But the app goes beyond just making introductions. It's also a relationship builder, helping to maintain and strengthen the bonds you've formed. By suggesting activities and implementing a point system, it encourages engagement and interaction, fostering a deeper connection between you and your new friends.

How we built it

Our project is a blend of various technologies including Flutter, Firebase, Express.js, and GPT-4. Flutter is used for crafting an engaging and intuitive front-end display. Firebase serves as our data storage solution, holding user personal data and constantly updating location information. The Express.js framework powers our backend, enabling us to make API calls to GPT-4 and Firebase. We process user information through GPT-4 to calculate the compatibility score with other users in their vicinity. This is done by feeding the information of nearby users into GPT-4. GPT-4 also plays a crucial role in enhancing user interaction by suggesting activities and chat suggestions. Moreover, we have devised a unique point system calculated using a special matrix in GPT-4. This system helps determine whether a user is interacting face-to-face at close distances, promoting more personal and meaningful connections. .

Challenges we ran into

One of the major challenges we encountered was the steep learning curve associated with Flutter. As first-year students, none of us had any prior experience with this technology. The task of learning and implementing Flutter within a tight timeframe of just three days was indeed daunting. Balancing the rapid development time with the need to deliver a quality product was a significant hurdle we had to overcome. Despite these challenges, we remained committed to our goal and persevered through the learning process. This experience not only tested our technical skills but also our ability to adapt and learn quickly under pressure.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re extremely proud of several milestones we’ve achieved in this project. Firstly, we successfully got Flutter to work, which was a significant accomplishment given our initial unfamiliarity with the technology. Secondly, we managed to integrate GPT-4 effectively to calculate compatibility scores, demonstrating our ability to leverage advanced AI technologies. Lastly, we were able to implement GPS functionality, adding a crucial element to our app. These accomplishments reflect our team’s resilience, adaptability, and technical prowess. We’re excited about what we’ve achieved and are eager to continue improving and refining our app.

What we learned

Throughout this project, we’ve gained invaluable insights and learned numerous lessons. We learned how to work with Flutter, a new technology for us, and successfully implemented it in our project. We also learned how to integrate GPT-4 for calculating compatibility scores and how to incorporate GPS functionality into our app.

Beyond the technical skills, we learned about teamwork, time management, and the importance of resilience when faced with challenges. This project has been a great learning experience for us, and we’re excited to apply these lessons to our future endeavors.

What's next for Fwend

The journey for Fwend is just beginning. We plan to fine-tune our AI to make it even more effective and accurate in matching users. We're also focusing on enhancing our UI/UX to provide a more intuitive and user-friendly experience. Additionally, we're looking to implement more systems to not just maintain, but also strengthen the relationships formed through our app. Our goal is to continually evolve and improve Fwend to better serve our users and help them forge stronger, more meaningful relationships.