Here are additional project possibilities for Spring 2020
The problem: Some students don’t want to interrupt what they’re doing to go out for on-campus food. Other students would like to make a little money by picking up food and delivering it to others.
The solution: Design a web app that enables students to register with the site as either a deliverer or a buyer. Then the buyers can request food, and delivers can fulfill the order.
As a “special sauce”, use geolocation features to organize delivery.
If you pick this project, you cannot name your app “UHber Eats”.
The problem. Students typically limit themselves to only studying consistent locations when there are hundreds of available study spots all over campus. Sinclair or Hamilton library are the “go-to” study spots, but both can get busy throughout the week and especially during finals week. There are many spots available to students that are not utilized because students are not aware of it.
The solution. A website that will allow students to post and rate study spots throughout the UH Manoa campus and the surrounding areas so that other students become aware of possible study spots. The entry for each location will list hours, capabilities, capacity of the location, and accessibility to different types of students. In addition, there is a “real-time” feature, where students can login and provide time-stamped notifications about the current state of the study space. This can inform other students about whether the space is noisy, or crowded, or even quiet and empty.
If you pick this project, you cannot name your app “Manoa Study Spots”.
The problem: With Hawaii’s traffic being the second worst in the nation and limited parking space on UH campus, it can be very difficult to get onto campus via car. Sure there’s rideshare programs like Uber and Lyft, but for some it can feel unsafe; riding with strangers who you know nothing about. Not to mention the environmental impact caused by all the cars going to and from just for a single student, there must be a better solution to this. Of course there is : carpooling is a great solution to solve these problems.
The solution: A website that will allow users (UH Students, Faculty, and Staff) to organize carpools with each other. Users can sign up to be a driver/rider, and drivers can search for riders that are most convenient to/from campus. These carpools can be recurring such as everyday classes or one-time such as for special events. A rating system for both drivers and passengers prevents abuses, plus a special administrator mode enables the site admin to remove users based upon substantiated complaints.
If you pick this project, you cannot name your app “Manoa Rides”.
The problem: Buying and selling books from the bookstore is tedious and expensive. Direct sales from students to students can “cut out the middleman” and result in both higher revenue for the seller and a cheaper price for the buyer. But how to connect interested sellers to interested buyers?
The solution: Manoa TextBook exchange enables students to login to the site and indicate books they would like to buy and books they would like to sell. They must supply the ISBN number (i.e. the unique ID) for each book, enabling the system to match up buyers and sellers. Buyers and sellers can rate each other, enabling users to build up confidence in each other over time. Admins can ban users for inappropriate behavior.
If you pick this project, you cannot name your app “Manoa Textbook Exchange”.
The problem: Contrary to popular belief, property managers love filling their rentals with college students. The reasons being is that college students always answer their phones, they’re normally manageable, and many of them have guarantors just in case they cannot pay rent.
However, there’s no good way to connect college students with property managers and vice-versa. The dorms are far above market value. Finding properties and random roommates on craigslist is worse.
The solution: Create an app for UH off-campus rentals that combines functionality similar to ratemyprofessors and yelp. If landlords want college students, they can post their unit on the app. From there, a licensed brokerage that subscribes to the ethics of the Honolulu Board of Realtors can take over the property management of it with the students. This app will also provide opportunities to find roommates.
Special sauces:
If you are a landlord, you can post a property and students will be able to review your property after they have stayed there. You can also see the students that want to apply. If you receive bad ratings you can simply withdraw and continue renting to non-college students. You can also see which managers are looking for contracts. Landlords will not be able to see students if they have not applied yet.
If you are a student, you can find properties and other students to be roommates with. The properties tab will have cards for the different properties, their ratings, their prices and if you click on them, it will show if other students are looking for roommates. The finding roommates tab will show cards of different students that you could potentially see yourself living with.
If you are a property manager, you can see which students are looking and which landlords need management, you can match them and manage their agreement. This is crucial because the property managers not only make sure each party is acting ethically, but it is generally not great if the landlord and tenant communicate directly. They need some sort of buffer.
If you pick this project, you cannot name your app “Manoa Cribs”.
The problem: The freshman fifteen! So many students enter and go through college feeling too ashamed to go to the gym alone or feeling afraid to go on a run alone because of safety concerns.
The solution: The ManoaFit application allows students to log in to the application and create a profile which specifies things like their gender, interests (e.g. strength training, running, outdoors), level (e.g. just starting, intermediate), “looking for” (e.g. a mentor to help me improve, a friend to keep me company while running, spotter/gym buddy), and goals (e.g. run an 8 minute mile, squat 200 lbs, hike Stairway to Heaven). The app would pair the user with someone with matching/similar interests.
Special sauce:
Scheduling. Users can schedule workouts: If the other user agrees, to a proposed match, they can use a scheduling page to create a new scheduled workout (date, time, place). This workout will be visible to ONLY the two users it concerns to protect their privacy.
Progress Tracking. Once the date/time passes for a scheduled workout, it will go into the user’s “progress” section of their profile – something like “(user1name) completed a 2.5 mile run with (user2name) on (date).” The user is then able to go in and edit the workout to add the time it was completed in, as well as add a picture that might have been taken on the run which they want to share. This will be posted to the friend feed if a “public” switch is toggled to on. Things like “place” can be toggled to “private” to protect the privacy of anyone who goes on recurring runs in the same place.
Overall Card: Progress tracking would have an “overall” card displaying your first workout vs. your most recent workout. For example, “first recorded bench press: 100 lb” and beneath it “most recent PR: 200 lbs with (spotterusername)”.
Friend Feed. All public progress cards are displayed for friends and matched users (maybe a feed which includes everyone on site?) Users can toggle match finding on/off if they find the perfect gym buddy, so they can instead use the site solely to record their progress.
If you pick this project, you cannot name your app “ManoaFit”.