Running Head: LAB 1 – UNIVERSITY FRIEND FINDER 1

Lab 1 - University Friend Finder Product Description

Duy Khang Nguyen

Old Dominion University

CS411W

Professor James Brunelle

11 December 2019

Draft 1

Lab 1 UNIVERSITY FRIEND FINDER 2

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................3

2. University Friend Finder Product Description....................................................................................4

2.1. Key Product Features and Capabilities............................................................................................4

2.2 Major Components (Hardware/ Software)........................................................................................6

3. Identification of Case Study..................................................................................................................7

3.1 Students................................................................................................................................................7

3.2 Student Organizations.........................................................................................................................9

3.3 University Administrator..................................................................................................................10

3.4 Potential Other Users........................................................................................................................11

4. University Fiend Finder Prototype Description................................................................................12

4.1 Prototype Architecture (Hardware/Software).................................................................................12

4.2 Prototype Features and Capabilities................................................................................................12

4.3 Prototype Development Challenges..................................................................................................12

5. Glossary................................................................................................................................................12

6. References............................................................................................................................................14

Tables and Figures

Figure 1 - Competition Matrix.....................................................................................................................5

Figure 2 - Major Functional Components Diagram.....................................................................................6

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Figure 3 - Student WBS..............................................................................................................................8

Figure 4 - Student Organization WBS.......................................................................................................10

Figure 5 - University Administrator WBS.................................................................................................11

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1. Introduction

Having friends in life in important but having friends in University more important.

Sometimes, it’s not easy to find a friend in University life. In October 2017, a first-year Cornell

university student, Emery Bergmann, is lamenting how she hasn’t found friends on her new

campus. In a 2017 survey by the American College Health Association, nearly 28,000 students

of 51 campuses were surveyed and more thang 60% said that they had “felt very lonely” in the

previous 12 months. When you think about all the experiences you will have in college, you

probably think about learning, growing and expanding your mind. There is another thing you

should think of while being in college is friendship. In a fast-paced learning environment,

friendship can help you and your friend get through easier. Some of the benefits of college

friends is that not only are there a whole lot more people to get to know, and, for the first time

you are on your own meeting people on your own terms outside of your family of origin and it's

all your experience. It can be a pretty fun time and long-lasting relationships are often formed at

that time. Also, if you are heading towards a career that depends on networking, college

friendships are going to be very important to you. They will likely become your contacts in your

future and possibly your coworkers. But it is relative and while a lot of people do create lasting

important relationships in college and it is probably one of the easier places to connect with

people your are more similar to it isn't the only place and, if, for example, you don't attend

college, there are still other ways to meet and form such relationships.

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University Friend Finder is an app that would help people to find friends in college based

on their interests. This app will help students find friends and stop feeling lonely. This app will

help improve the academic performance, their mental and physical well-being.

2. University Friend Finder Product Description

University Friend Finder is designed to help students find friends within their University.

It will show them people with the same interests, major and classes that will likely be their

friend. This app will help them grow both in personality and academically.

2.1. Key Product Features and Capabilities

University Friend Finder’s user will be able to create their profile based on their role as

student, student organization, or administration. University Friend finder will provide users with

many features including: create profile with picture and interests, accept or deny matches,

communication in-app, restrict them to use valid university email, filter by characteristics, search

for other students and organizations. From figure 2, you can see that our app is designed for

university students, and the features of the product are used to help university student find

friends with the intend to increase their academic performance and healthy life.

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Figure 1 - Competition Matrix

2.1.1 Help University Student Make Friends

Student’s user will be able to create their own profile with pictures and interests. The app

will display possible matches of user profiles based on their interests. Users can accept or deny

these matches. Users have the control of accepting to chat and start hanging out with their

potential friends. Users will be able to filter by characteristics such as gender, ages, distance,

ethic, …

2.1.2 Match Student with Relevant Organizations

Student Organizations could also create profiles and provide information about the

organization for students. Student users will also be able to see organizations matching with their

interest. Users will be able to see upcoming events, important date of the organizations.

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2.1.3 Provide a Safe Environment for Communication

User will be required to use their valid university to confirm their identity. Messages and

information within the app will be encrypted to prevent data expose. Users will be able to report

if there is inappropriate images or message while communicating with other users.

2.2 Major Components (Hardware/ Software)

Figure 2 - Major Functional Components Diagram

2.2.1 Hardware

University Friend Finder will be an app on any mobile devices that run Android or iOS

platforms. No hardware is required. React framework will build native app from JavaScript.

Developers can perform their work from their personal computer, and ODU Computer Science

Server will be used for development and prototype.

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2.2.2 Software

React Native will be IOS/ Android native app development. React Native is a best-in-

class JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It offers faster mobile development, and

more efficient code sharing across iOS, Android and the Web. For our framework, we will be

using Django. It will provide developers many easy ways to developed University Friend Finder.

Python is being used for our development process which will offer flexibility, efficiency and

reliability of many basic functions that is needed to develop University Friend Finder. For APIs

and runtime, we will be using GraphQL. GraphQL provide us with many useful features for

fulling our queries with existing data. The reliability and performance of PostgreSQL made it the

best choice for us to use it for our database. It has many features that safely store and scale the

most complicated data workloads.

3. Identification of Case Study

University Friend Finder is being developed for any Universities to provide the

friendships to all the students.

3.1 Students

University Students will be majority users that use this product.

3.1.1 Why Students Need This Product

In our modern day, it’s hard for students to find friend since it relies heavily on face-to-

face interactions. Available social media options for finding friends do not satisfy the

preference of students who want to explore friendship opportunities strictly within their

university community. Social media options may also pose additional risks to students

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exploring friendship opportunities. Being lonely can affect student’s performance in school.

Students with a high degree of loneliness score an average of two letter grades below their

peers.

3.1.2 How students Will Use This Product

Figure 3 - Student WBS

Users will be using this application like any other products. They need to download the

application through iOS app store and Google store. They will need to go through the process of

creating a profile, and authentication process using their university email. They will need provide

their interests, classes in their profile so they can me match with other users. The figure above

(figure 3) provide student users with basic options while using the app.

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3.1.3 The Outcome of Students Using This Product

Students will likely develop a healthy friendship while using University Friend Finder.

Hopefully, student will increase their academic performance through UFF. Friendships and peer

groups influence student’s behavior. Students with strong peer groups are more likely to: develop

a full sense of identity, persist through graduation and engage in positive behaviors on college

campuses. A research in 2010 claims the effect of social ties on life span is twice as strong as

exercising.

3.2 Student Organizations

3.2.1 Why Student Organization Need This Product

It’s easier for student to find Organizations within the app, it could also match their

interests with the organization, which make it easier to choose an organization to join. UFF will

help student organizations increase the number of memberships. UFF will also promotes their

event and help providing it to students.

3.2.2 How Student Organization Will Use This Product

Student Organization will use this product by registering an account as student

organization through access given by the University Administrator. They will also set up their

profile just like a student with interest. UFF will match student their student organizations.

Students will be able to see updates, policy, upcoming events from student organizations. Some

basic actions that university organizations can do is provided below (figure 4).

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Figure 4 - Student Organization WBS

3.2.3 The Outcome of Student Organization Using This Product

More students will be able to find themselves joining student organization since it’s

based on interests. The number of members in Organization will increase.

3.3 University Administrator

3.3.1 Why University Administrator Need This Product

University Administrator will be able to monitor the interaction between students, and

how UFF impacts on students. University Administrator will be able to see all the inappropriate

content within the product, and so they will be able to ban and remove users.

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3.3.2 How University Administrator Use This Product

Figure 5 - University Administrator WBS

University Administrator will be able to view the interaction between student via

Website. They will have the authority to take actions according to the reports. Some basic

functions are provided on figure 5) above.

3.3.3 The Outcome of University Administrator Using This Product

University Administrators will be able to control users and make sure that users are using

this product in an effective way.

3.4 Potential Other Users

3.4.1 High School Students

This product could also be use in High School since it’s matching friend based on interest

within the school.

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3.4.2 Large Organizations

This product could also be used for large organization since it’s can match co-workers

based on interest that they might not know because of different departments

4. University Fiend Finder Prototype Description

4.1 Prototype Architecture (Hardware/Software)

4.1.1 Hardware

4.1.2 Software

4.2 Prototype Features and Capabilities

4.3 Prototype Development Challenges

4.3.1 Customer Risks

4.3.2 Technical Risks

5. Glossary

App: an application, especially as downloaded by a user to a mobile device.

Administrator: Person responsible for viewing reports and banning users.

Back-end: also called the data access layer of software or hardware and includes any

functionality that needs to be accessed and navigated to by digital means.

Application programming interface (API): programming interface between the backend business

logic

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Django: High level Python Web Framework. Handles user authentication and permission,

database object models via object-relational mapper (ORM). The admin interface will be built

using Django’s form templates.

Docker: Lightweight virtual machine platform that allows ‘containerization’ of applications from

development and deployment

Gitlab: Git repository with integrated continuous integration deployment pipelines

GraphQL: A declarative and typed query language for APIs which allows evolutionary schema

design. GraphQL allows clients to customize what data is returned, providing minimal HTTP

traffic and payloads. We will use the Graphene Library, which has been integrated with Django,

to define our schema using Python.

Google Cloud Vision (GCV): A machine learning API that is able to inspect inputted images for

violent, adult, spoof, medical, or racy content.

Machine Learning: Method of data analysis that automates analytical model building.

PostgreSQL: Backend database preferred for use with Django, which will abstract most of the

query and data modeling for us.

React Native: A framework for building native apps (for Android and IOS) using React JS

library. Our apps will be lightweight, focused on presentation and caching. Business logic will be

contained within backend application code, with data transmitted via GraphQL API.

Student: A person who attends a university/college.

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Student Organization: A group of students in a university/college who share one or multiple

common interests.

University Administrator: Special user who possess special privileges, such as warning or

banning users, for account management.

End user: the person who actually uses a particular product.

WBS: Work Breakdown Structure.

GUI (graphical user interface): interactive components such as icons and other graphical objects

that help a user interact with computer software, such as an operating system.

Database: a structured set of data held in a computer, especially one that is accessible in various

ways.

SQL: Structured Query Language.

6. References

Knapton, S. (2016, August 24). Having no friends could be as deadly as smoking, Harvard University

finds. Retrieved December 6, 2019, from

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/08/24/having-no-friends-could-be-as-deadly-as-

smoking-harvard-universi/.

Old Dominion University. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2019, from

https://datausa.io/profile/university/old-dominion-university

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Old Dominion University Student Population And Demographics. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.collegetuitioncompare.com/edu/232982/old-dominion-university/enrollment/

The College Student Mental Health Crisis (Update). (2018, November 18). Retrieved from

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201811/the-college-student-

mental-health-crisis-update

Isolation, loneliness for college students persists in a partisan era on college campuses. (2017,

October 26). Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/10/26/isolation-

loneliness-college-students-persists-partisan-era-college-campuses

Jie Zong, Jeanne Batalova Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova. (2018, June 5). International Students

in the United States. Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/international-

students-united-states

Loneliness at Universities: Determinants of Emotional and Social Loneliness among Students.

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6163695/#B34-

ijerph-15-01865

Pappas, S. (2016, January 8). 7 Ways Friendships Are Great for Your Health. Retrieved from

https://www.livescience.com/53315-how-friendships-are-good-for-your-health.html

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