Strathmore University is facing a significant challenge in effectively communicating information about clubs and societies to its students. The current system relies heavily on email, which has proven to be inadequate in providing timely and relevant updates to the university community. Consequently, students are missing out on essential information such as registration deadlines for extracurricular activities, resulting in reduced participation and engagement in these activities.
Furthermore, the process of connecting students with similar interests is time-consuming, as students are required to visit the clubs office at specific times to learn about the different clubs and their eligibility criteria. As a result, there is a need for an exclusive application that is only available to Strathmore students, which can provide the Strathmore experience beyond academic activities.
This application would enable students to connect with like-minded individuals with just a click of a button and receive real-time updates on activities happening in the communities they have subscribed to. This would also help new students feel more at home by facilitating connections with other students who share similar interests.
Implementation
To improve communication at Strathmore University through a dedicated social media platform, a powerful web application needs to be developed. The MERN stack is an excellent choice for this project, as it provides a robust and scalable solution for handling user data, community data, and posts data.
Here is a breakdown of the MERN stack components and other tools that can be used to develop the application:
MongoDB 🍃: This is a popular NoSQL database that provides a flexible and scalable way to store data. It is used to store community data, user data, and posts data.
Express ✨: This is a lightweight web application framework for Node.js. It is used to start the local application and handle server-side logic.
React 🔵: This is a popular JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It is used to create a responsive and user-friendly interface for users to access the social media platform.
Node.js 🌳: This is a server-side JavaScript runtime environment. It is used to execute JavaScript code on the server-side and handle requests and responses.
Firebase🔥🚒: This is a cloud-based platform that provides a variety of tools and services for app development. It can be used to handle image uploads for user profiles and posts.
In addition, several packages and tools can be used in the development process, including:
JSON Web Token (JWT): This is a popular tool for user authentication. It can be used to secure user data and authorize access to certain features of the application.
Mongoose: This is an Object Data Modeling (ODM) library for MongoDB. It provides a simple and elegant way to interact with the MongoDB database.
Npm: This is the Node Package Manager. It is used to install and manage dependencies for the application.
Overall, using the MERN stack and other tools described above, a powerful and user-friendly social media platform can be developed to improve communication and engagement within the Strathmore University community.
Developed a social media platform for Strathmore University. This application was developed to improve communication between Students and the school faculty.