📱 SwipeConnect — A Mentorship Matching App

SwipeConnect is a cross-platform mentorship matchmaking app built for Rutgers University students to connect mentors and mentees through shared interests, career goals, and club affiliations. Using a swipe-based interface, the app makes professional networking intuitive, engaging, and accessible.

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🎬 Demo

▶️ Watch our presentation & demo video

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💡 Overview

Many student clubs run mentorship programs, but they often rely on Google Forms, spreadsheets, or word-of-mouth matching — making it hard for students to explore opportunities outside their own organizations. SwipeConnect unifies these efforts into a single platform that promotes cross-club, cross-major mentorship and faster, more meaningful connections.

🧭 Core Features

• Tailored Profiles — Students can display interests, career goals, and university organizations as tags on their profiles.
• Swipe-Based Matching — Mentors and mentees swipe left/right to show interest; mutual likes create a match.
• In-App Messaging — Once matched, users can chat directly to plan meetups or ongoing mentorship.
• Smart Filtering — Filter users by shared tags, majors, and fields of interest.
• Secure Authentication — Firebase Auth ensures safe login and account management.
• Cloud-Backed Data Storage — Real-time data sync using Firebase Firestore.

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🎯 Project Goals

• Enhance mentorship accessibility: Build a single app where students can easily discover mentors in relevant academic or professional domains.
• Personalize networking: Match users based on their majors, goals, and club memberships.
• Streamline communication: Enable real-time chat and notifications for seamless mentor–mentee engagement.
• Ensure scalability and maintainability: Use a modular architecture with a TypeScript React Native frontend and Flask backend.

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🧰 Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React Native (Expo) + TypeScript
Backend	Flask (Python)
Database / Auth	Firebase Firestore + Firebase Auth
Testing	Jest (frontend), PyTest (backend)
Deployment	Render (backend), Expo Go (mobile preview)
Monitoring / Logging	Better Stack (API logs & uptime monitoring)
API Tools	Postman

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🧱 Architecture

Layered Design

• Presentation (UI) → Business Logic → Data Access → Data Storage
• Modular components, reusable styles, and centralized Firebase configuration

Benefits

• High maintainability
• Easy scalability
• Consistent testing and debugging

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⚙️ Setup & Run Locally

1️⃣ Frontend Setup (Expo + React Native)

Install Expo modules:

npx install-expo-modules@latest

Start the Expo development server:

npx expo start

• Press w to open in your browser, or
• Scan the QR code with the Expo Go app to run on iOS/Android.

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2️⃣ Backend Setup (Flask + Firebase)

Create and activate a virtual environment:

cd backend
python -m venv venv

Activate:

• Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
• macOS/Linux: source venv/bin/activate

Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Run the backend:

python app.py

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3️⃣ Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory:

FIREBASE_CREDENTIALS=path/to/serviceAccountKey.json

(Use forward slashes and no quotes in the path.)

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🧪 Testing

• Frontend:

  • Jest + React Native Testing Library
  • Mocks for Expo, AsyncStorage, and Firebase APIs

• Backend:

  • PyTest with in-memory Firestore mocks for dependency-free tests
  • 25+ automated test cases across signup, profile, messaging, and swiping flows

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👥 Team

Role	Member
Product Owner	Natalie Chow
Scrum Master	Julia S. Ochoa
Frontend Developers	Natalie Chow, Amithi Pathak
Backend Developers	Kelvin Bian, Andrea Kim

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📸 UI Design

🎨 View the Figma Prototype

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🧭 Lessons Learned

• Time Management: Accurately scoping features around a new tech stack.
• Technical Growth: Learned full-stack integration with React Native, Flask, and Firebase.
• Testing Discipline: Built mock environments for reliable, repeatable tests.
• Team Collaboration: Applied Agile principles using Jira and Confluence for sprints and documentation.