Study Chum

Project by Team Swaggers for Google India Girl Hackathon 2022

2nd Runner-Up

Overview

Study Chum is a web application designed to address the challenges faced by students in an online or hybrid learning environment. By acting as a virtual study companion, Study Chum aims to reduce loneliness, increase focus, and improve productivity.

Features

• Chatbot: Interacts with users during lectures or meetings, providing companionship and engagement. The chatbot also checks on the user's understanding and can save chat transcripts as notes.
• Pomodoro Timer: Helps in planning study sessions, fighting procrastination, and breaking the habit of multitasking by encouraging focused work intervals.
• To-Do List: An integrated to-do list with columns for urgent tasks, tasks to do, and tasks you want to do. It helps in organizing and prioritizing work.
• Site Blocker: Prevents access to distracting websites during study sessions to maintain focus.
• Progress Tracking: Tracks total working hours using the Pomodoro technique and displays progress through a bar graph, allowing users to compete with themselves and improve daily.

Technologies Used

• HTML/CSS
• JavaScript
• Python/Flask

Future Roadmap

• Automatic Reminders: Set alarms/reminders according to the to-do list.
• Mobile Connectivity: Integrate mobile notifications to prevent distractions.
• Enhanced Privacy: Improve data security for user interactions with the chatbot and other features.

Team Members

• Himanshi Sethi
• Srishti Jain
• Siya Garg

Problem Addressed

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased loneliness and procrastination among students due to the lack of physical surroundings and interaction in online learning. Study Chum aims to mitigate these issues by providing a virtual companion and tools to enhance productivity.

Use Cases

Study Chum is targeted at students attending online lectures or studying alone. It helps them stay motivated, organized, and focused, reducing the negative impacts of isolation and procrastination.

Approach

Study Chum integrates several components to offer a holistic solution:

1. Chatbot and Working Hours Tracker: Keeps users engaged and tracks study time.
2. To-Do List: Helps in organizing and prioritizing tasks.
3. Pomodoro Timer and Site Blocker: Enhances focus and prevents distractions.

Privacy Considerations

The application respects user privacy and aims to provide secure interactions, addressing concerns about data and chat privacy.

References

• Mental Health UK - Loneliness During the Pandemic
• Pomodoro Method
• Hybrid Learning Challenges

How to Use

1. Clone the repository
2. Navigate to the project directory
3. Install dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Run the application

   python app.py

5. Access the web application at http://localhost:5000