🌟 GLB.Connect - Bridge to Success 🌟

GLB.Connect is a real-time platform designed to help juniors in college connect with seniors for personalized guidance. It fosters an environment of collaboration and support, empowering juniors to access mentorship on academics, internships, and career paths, while encouraging senior leadership and knowledge sharing. 🚀

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📑 Table of Contents

1. Problem Statement
2. Motivation
3. Features
4. Tech Stack
5. Installation Guide
6. Usage
7. Project Roadmap
8. Contributing
9. License
10. Acknowledgments

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🔍 Problem Statement

Starting college can be overwhelming for juniors who face challenges in navigating academics, understanding career options, and managing their overall journey. There’s no structured or easy way for juniors to connect with seniors for mentorship, which creates gaps in knowledge and guidance.

GLBConnect addresses these challenges by providing a real-time platform where juniors can easily connect with seniors. Whether it's about academic advice, exam preparation, internships, or extracurricular activities, this platform bridges the experience gap and helps juniors find answers quickly.

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💡 Motivation

Many juniors feel hesitant or shy when approaching seniors for advice. This platform is designed to overcome these barriers by offering anonymous posting and one-on-one messaging, making it easier for students to ask questions and receive personalized advice.

Through extensive research and feedback from potential users, we found that 84% of students would benefit from such a platform, with 77% of seniors being willing to mentor juniors.

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✨ Features

• Q&A Threads: A forum-like feature where juniors can post questions and seniors can respond.
• Direct Messaging: Real-time chat between juniors and seniors for personalized help.
• Anonymous Posting: Allows juniors to post questions anonymously to reduce hesitation.
• Mentor-Mentee Matching: AI-powered matching based on shared interests and academic/career goals.
• Resource Sharing: Seniors can upload helpful notes, papers, and templates for juniors.

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💻 Tech Stack

Our project is built using modern web and mobile technologies to ensure scalability, efficiency, and performance.

Frontend

• Flutter: Used to build a cross-platform mobile app for Android and iOS. Chosen for its fast development cycle and smooth UI rendering.
• React.js: Frontend framework for the web app, providing a fast and modular UI.

Backend

• Node.js: Handles server-side logic, processes user requests, and manages interactions with the database.
• Firebase Realtime Database: A NoSQL cloud-hosted database for storing and syncing data in real time, ensuring seamless interaction between students and mentors.

Authentication

• Firebase Authentication: Ensures secure login and user data protection using Google, email, and password sign-in options.

AI Tools

• Natural Language Processing (NLP): For understanding and processing user queries.
• Mentor-Mentee Matching Algorithm: AI-driven matching based on user interests and goals.

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🔧 Installation Guide

To get the project running locally, follow these steps:

Prerequisites:

• Node.js (version >= 14)
• Flutter (version >= 3.x.x)
• Firebase account for database and authentication setup

Steps:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/glbconnect.git
   cd glbconnect

2. Install the necessary dependencies for both frontend and backend:

   npm install       # For backend
   cd frontend
   flutter pub get   # For Flutter app

3. Set up Firebase:

   • Create a Firebase project on the Firebase Console.
   • Enable Firebase Authentication and Realtime Database.
   • Add the Firebase SDK to your project.

4. Run the app:

   # For Flutter Mobile App:
   flutter run
   
   # For Web App:
   npm start

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🛠 Usage

Once installed, juniors can sign up and post questions or connect with seniors for guidance. Seniors can also upload resources, post answers, and offer mentorship through direct messaging. The platform is built to facilitate an ongoing conversation between students and ensure they can collaborate effectively.

• Example User Flow:
  1. Junior logs in and posts an anonymous question on career advice.
  2. Senior receives the query and responds with detailed suggestions.
  3. The junior can connect via Direct Message for personalized help.

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🚀 Project Roadmap

Our project follows a systematic approach to ensure continuous development:

1. Research & Requirement Analysis - Understand student pain points and gather data through surveys.
2. Design & Prototype - Design UI/UX using Figma and conduct user testing.
3. Development & Testing - Develop the mobile and web apps, implement the backend, and integrate Firebase.
4. Launch & User Feedback - Deploy the application, gather user feedback, and improve features.

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🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions to improve GLBConnect. If you have any suggestions, ideas, or want to contribute code, please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new branch:

   git checkout -b feature-branch-name

3. Make your changes and commit:

   git commit -m "Add some feature"

4. Push to the branch:

   git push origin feature-branch-name

5. Open a pull request.

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🛡️ Security

We prioritize user data and platform security. Here are some key measures:

• Data Encryption: All data is encrypted during transit using SSL/TLS.
• User Authentication: Secure sign-in methods via Firebase.
• Role-Based Access: Ensures only authorized users have access to specific features.

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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🙏 Acknowledgments

We would like to extend our gratitude to Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Pippal, HOD of CSE-AI Department at GL Bajaj Institute of Technology and Management, for his unwavering guidance and support.

Special thanks to our team members Muhammad Baqir, Nisha Ahmad, Maahi Dhaka, and Kshitij Dwivedi for their relentless dedication to this project.

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We believe GLBConnect will help students build a stronger academic and professional future by providing timely and effective mentorship. Feel free to explore, contribute, and share feedback.

Let’s build something great together! 💡

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