Robert Pinto

Professor Hong Man

CPE 322

28 January 2014

Phase II

Potential Project (from phase I)

My idea for a project involves creating a web service that will connect high school students who are looking to better themselves with college students who have experience in that respective area. The service will utilize a pool of college students who are willing to communicate with the high school students. The product that will be provided is the link between the high school student and the college student who has experience in the area in which the high school student is seeking help. The service will determine the interests and objectives of the high school student, along with some other traits, and then match them with a college student mentor.

Stakeholders

The designers are myself and my group mate(s) that are working on this project with me. Some of our potential requirements are:

  • A domain name
  • A website that is easy to troubleshoot
  • Information about what high school students want out of the project
  • Information about what could be done to incentivize participation of college students
  • Information about how a service like this should be marketed and sold
  • A pool of users who will be very receptive and helpful

The clients are the institutions that would be paying for the service. Their potential requirements are:

  • Visible benefit to their students
  • A cost that will not exceed the value of the service
  • An easy set up process to create accounts for all students
  • Quality customer service

The users are the high school students who are looking for help and advice and the college students who are giving it. Their potential requirements are:

  • User friendly interface
  • Effective search engine and matching service
  • Connection with a quality mentor/mentee
  • Vast pool of users to connect with

Practicality

This project is very practical for a two-semester multi-student senior design project. As it currently stands, the team will have a lot of work to do to create a search engine specific to this site’s function, as well as a process to match the high school students with college students who can help them. They will also have to work hard to get people interested and willing to participate, because without this group the website would be useless. A very positive aspect though is that there will be relatively no costs associated with this project.

Necessary Skills

One of the skills that I currently lack but would need would be web development experience. Also, more knowledge of programming and coding in general will be necessary. Though not exactly a skill, more experience in the business side of a service like this will be helpful as well.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

  • This would be a unique service in a market that has a lot of potential but is not dominated by anyone. There is no other service like this available to high school students.
  • There are enormous amounts of possibilities for this service and the directions that it can be taken in.
  • Getting help from a peer who has very recently gone through the same things is much more beneficial than having and adult tell you how they think it is. It is also much less daunting.
  • Forming deals with institutions for the use for the use of this service will provide a very stable source of revenue.

Weaknesses:

  • Currently the project is weakened by the fact that there really would not be any intellectual property in it that could be patented.

Opportunities:

  • The most basic goal of this service is to connect high school students to college students who can give them advice and truly raw information about the things that they are interested in.
  • This can be expanded to anything that will help the users to increase their “human capital”: physical and mental development; help with applying for a job and forming a resume;networking; and many others.

Threats:

  • It is completely reliant on the participation of college students; if they are not motivated to join then the service will fail.
  • The college students must also provide valuable information and serve as good mentors, which the designers have little control over.