Project Proposals

Please take a moment to rank the proposals.

I have left comments on the proposals about where some of the open questions are. They will hopefully not scare you off from any particular project. There are also some main points that are important for all of them:

Midd Marketplace

Target Audience:

This application is for college students who want to buy and sell textbooks, dorm supplies, and other second-hand goods in a safe and convenient way. Stakeholders include students looking for affordable options, graduating students who want to sell items quickly, and possibly campus organizations interested in promoting sustainability and reducing waste. Perhaps local residents can join, but with some limitations.

Main Functionality:

Students will be able to create accounts, post listings with images and descriptions, search and filter for specific items (e.g., textbooks by course code, furniture by category), and contact sellers directly. The “epics” include:

  1. Listings Management: Users can post items for sale, upload pictures, set prices, and mark listings as sold.
  2. Search and Discovery: A searchable catalog with filters for item type, course codes, and condition, making it easy to find relevant goods.
  3. User Profiles and Contact: Basic profiles tied to school credentials to ensure safety and trust, plus in-app messaging for negotiations.
  4. Trust and Reputation: A credit/rating system will track each user’s reliability as a buyer or seller, encouraging honest transactions and helping students avoid scams.
Professor says

This is a perennial favorite. Craigslist is an obvious model – particularly the way they don’t handle any of the actual transactions. I notice the inclusion of “course codes”. This is a potential rabbit hole where you start getting very specific in ways that aren’t relevant to all items on the site. This makes your data model more challenging.

I would also advise any group taking this on to prioritize the core functionality, and treat things like messaging for negotiation and rating as stretch goals.

MiddBin

Target Audience:

  • Middlebury College students who are looking to give away, sell, or trade personal items — especially during move-out, breaks,etc
  • Graduating seniors who need a quick, low-effort way to offload furniture, dorm items, appliances, or supplies they no longer need.
  • First-year and returning students who want items for their dorms or apartments without having to buy everything new.
  • Students without convenient transportation who benefit from being able to claim and coordinate pickups locally on campus.
  • The Middlebury College Recycling Center, which can use the platform to post available items, reduce waste, and increase visibility of their inventory without requiring students to visit in person.
  • Residence life staff or RAs, who can recommend the platform as a resource for dorm move-ins and move-outs.
  • Facilities staff, who may see reduced clutter and waste around dorms when students use the app instead of leaving unwanted items behind, outside, etc”

Main Functionality:

list items and postings: Users can create accounts and upload photos of items they want to sell, give away for free, or trade. Each listing includes a description, condition, price, and availability deadline. This enables users to easily share what they no longer need

Local Matching and Interaction: helps users based on their campus proximity to facilitate convenient exchange. Interested users can “like” or express interest in items, allowing sellers to review and choose recipients—especially important for large or bulky items where coordination matters. Messaging functionality enables buyers and sellers to communicate securely to arrange pickups or negotiate details without sharing their number

Recycling Center Integration:the campus recycling center can post available donated or reclaimed items on the platform, increasing transparency and accessibility. This reduces unnecessary trips to the center for students at unnreasonable hours.

User Profiles and Reputation:each user has a profile displaying their listings and maybe transaction history- encouraging respectful and reliable exchanges.

Move-Out/Move-In Focused Features: Special emphasis on move-out periods where students typically discard many belongings. The app helps seniors and other students efficiently offload items and helps incoming students find affordable stuff”

Professor says

This is obviously very similar to Midd Marketplace but has a little bit of a different emphasis. I am going to list both. If either one gets enough votes independently, it will go forward. However, if things are looking sparse, I may condense the voting blocks from the two projects to form a project team.

Rate Your Dorm

Target Audience:

The platform is designed for current and incoming students choosing where to live on campus. Target users include students looking for housing advice, and housing administrators who want to gather structured feedback on dorm quality.

Main Functionality:

The main functionality is to provide dorm reviews and recommendations, with optional roommate matching if time allows. The “epics” include:

  1. Dorm Profiles: Each dorm has a page with photos, ratings (cleanliness, noise, facilities, community), and student-written reviews.
  2. Recommendation System: Students can enter their preferences (quiet environment, social atmosphere, proximity to classes, etc.), and the system will suggest dorms that best match those preferences.
  3. Search and Discovery: Students can browse by dorm name, compare ratings, and see highlights or drawbacks.
  4. Optional Roommate Matching: If included, students could fill out lifestyle surveys (sleep schedule, noise tolerance, cleanliness preferences) and get recommended matches.
Professor says

We have not had a dorm rating system yet, but we have had other rating tools. My experience with dorms is now quite old, but I recall dorms having certain personalities, but those personalities shift over time. If this is built with long term use in mind (which it should be), age of the review should be a component of the data.

The roommate matching seems like a real stretch. It is related thematically, but is essentially a whole different site. If this goes forward, the team should decide to do one or the other.

Study Abroad/Away Review Hub

Target Audience:

Students who want to share or read feedback about study abroad programs

Main Functionality:

The app is a hub for study abroad experiences.

  1. Program Pages: Each program has reviews and ratings, organized into categories such as classes, overall experience, housing, safety, and language learning. This gives students a clearer breakdown of strengths and weaknesses instead of a single overall score.
  2. Review Submission: Students can post ratings, comments, and photos, making feedback more detailed and trustworthy.
  3. Q&A: Alumni can answer prospective students’ questions, creating a more interactive advice system.
Professor says

The Alumni Q&A could be useful, but this would also be a stretch goal. There is also the “altruism” problem. Why would alumni log on to answer questions?

MiddGrocer — Student Grocery Delivery

Target Audience:

Middlebury students who want groceries delivered conveniently from nearby stores such as Hannaford, Shaw’s, and Walgreens.

Student drivers or volunteers who fulfill the delivery requests.

Administrators who maintain the product catalog, update prices, manage orders, and oversee delivery logistics.

The application is designed for the Middlebury College community to make grocery shopping more accessible, efficient, and time-saving for students who may not have transportation or time to shop in person.

Main Functionality:

The platform will allow students to browse groceries from multiple local stores, add items to a cart, and place an order for campus delivery.

  1. Browse and Cart Students can select a store, search or filter products by category, and add or remove items from a shopping cart. They will see updated totals and product availability in real-time from our internal database.

  2. Checkout and Scheduling Users can enter their address (with autocomplete via Google Maps) and select a preferred delivery window. The checkout process includes a flat or distance-based delivery fee. Upon confirmation, users receive an email receipt.

  3. Order Tracking Students can view their order status (““Received”” ““In Transit”” ““Delivered”“) and see an estimated delivery time. This keeps users informed and reduces uncertainty.

  4. Admin Management Admins can add or edit stores and products, update prices, toggle item availability, and bulk-import product data from a CSV. This allows quick updates without manual edits to each entry.

  5. Delivery Operations Drivers or volunteers can log in to see assigned orders, mark them as “In transit” or “Delivered,” and optionally view an optimized delivery route.

This project solves a real student need: making grocery delivery simple and affordable while showcasing a full-stack web application with user roles, database integration, and external APIs.

Professor says

I know that this is a frequently cited pain point. However, this is overly ambitious as written. Just the logistics of trying to keep track of the inventory of local stores is way beyond what we would want to take on. If folks wanted to take this on, I would suggest a much scaled back version, with orders being simple user supplied lists and the price being based on the receipt (and handled outside of the app by drivers and order placers). Even with that much striped back functionality, there are a lot of details that would have to be worked out in the early phases of this project.

“MiddPoint” or “Mapped@Midd”

Target Audience:

Are you pissed because you just missed the Ben & Jerry’s truck because you forgot that event was happening? Wishing someone could tell you how long the line is at Ross so you can go somewhere else instead? Or maybe you’re curious about what building you want to live in next year?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, then this website is the solution. Welcome to MiddPoint — the digital campus guide you didn’t know you needed.

MiddPoint is interactive, visual, and student-driven — little spontaneous moments you can explore on your own terms. You can open a map and see real photos and videos from real students at real spots on campus — that cozy window nook in Davis Library, the long line for General Tso’s chicken at Ross, that event that’s randomly happening in Axinn, or even that hidden study spot in the Giff dorm. You can see what’s happening now. And speaking of Giff dorm — there will be a page dedicated to showing you the rooms with a 360° view, so you don’t have to rely on the square footage Middlebury gives you or that outdated blueprint when it comes to selecting your room for next year.

  • Current Middlebury students: for social engagement and discovery
  • residents of On-campus housing: for room previews and interactive campus orientation/a real look inside dorms, not just blueprints
  • Campus offices and student orgs: for event promotion and student life engagement
  • Prospective students and families: to visualize campus life in a real, authentic way
  • Middlebury College: as a stakeholder in community building and campus visibility
  • more students: Show off their rooms, share hidden gems on campus, and can boost their own ORGs/clubs events with live pictures as reminders
  • Everyone: Keep up with what’s hot, explore the campus in a fun way

Main Functionality:

  • A zoomable campus map to know exactly where things are occurring (powered by OpenStreetMap, Mapbox, and especially marzipano)
  • Students can upload photos or short videos tied to specific locations (e.g., a scenic view, a dorm lounge, favorite study spot)
  • Each post is pinned to its location and shows username and timestamp
  • most upvoted photo at a spot (or some other way to incentivize it)
  • Simple login with Middlebury email (for privacy/ limited to campus)
Professor says

The core functionality here is interesting. There is more here than is achievable in our half a semester so there would have to be some heavy prioritization. I would lean towards focusing on the “what’s hot” aspect and think about how to time fence things and call attention to photo “blooms” caused by events.

I’ll also note that this sounds more like a mobile app. It is not uncommon these days to have mobile apps actually just be web apps, so I don’t object to this, though you will want to design to support phone form factor.

“MiddRush” or “JumbleRush”

Target Audience:

  • Students or beyond who enjoy quick, competitive games
  • Puzzle and word game lovers (like those who play Wordle, Boggle, etc.)
  • People looking to casually improve memory, focus, or typing speed
  • Gamers who enjoy time-based challenges and fast-paced thinking
  • Music lovers who enjoy games with audio integration
  • people who want to be productive in their free time”

Main Functionality:

  • fast-paced, music-timed word game where users must unscramble and correctly type words before time runs out.
  • Words will appear on the screen one at a time, scrambled, and the player must solve them quickly to move on. Each word is displayed for a limited time (maybe 10 seconds).
  • As difficulty increases, words become more complex, and time limits shrink. Song clips will serve as timers, and their length will vary depending on the difficulty level.
  • Players will need to rely on memory, focus, typing speed, and multitasking to succeed
  • A keyscore tracker based on accuracy, speed, and number of words completed within a single game session.
  • Players can choose between different game modes or difficulty levels (Easy, Medium, Hard), each with different word banks and music lengths.

I want the core goal and “why” to this website to create a competitive, mentally stimulating experience that also encourages users to improve their problem-solving skills, productivity, memory, concentration, and typing skills. Using song clips as a timer enhances immersion and fun.

Professor says

Games can be fun builds. It will be important for any team taking this on that they nail down the game mechanics very early in the process.

“Snowcial” or “SendIt”

Target Audience:

  • Middlebury students who ski or snowboard at Snow Bowl, Sugarbush, or other nearby resorts
  • Students with irregular schedules who find it hard to coordinate ski trips with friends
  • New or international students looking to get into skiing and meet others with experience
  • Students looking to carpool to the mountain
  • Solo skiers who want social company for the lifts, trails, etc

Main Functionality:

  • The main functionality is to connect Middlebury students who want to go skiing or snowboarding with others who share similar schedules, transportation needs, or social interests.
  • It serves as a buddy-matching and coordination platform, allowing people to find ski partners based on availability, skill level, destination (e.g., Snow Bowl, Sugarbush), and whether they need or can offer a ride.
  • will include basic information like name (or nickname), ski/snowboard preference, experience level, typical ski times (e.g., mornings, weekends)
  • Another major epic is the in-app messaging- allows users to coordinate plans without sharing personal contact info. (can be modeled off of something like Kik; a system that allow for casual, private, and ephemeral communication- number private but pfp does not have to be)
  • The app aims to foster a stronger ski community; This is especially useful for first-years, international students, or those new to skiing.
  • trying to impromptu or same-day skiing plans- showing who’s available “right now” to go skiing, reducing planning friction.”
Professor says

Coordinating over in-app channels can be a challenge for coordination, especially when there are tight deadlines (as I would imagine in this case). I think there is enough to do here without worrying about creating another messaging channel. While I worry a lot about privacy in any sort of social networking app, if you are getting together to go skiing, you will probably learn names, and all Middlebury email addresses are available, so I don’t think there is a big risk to relying on email messages.

Fislog / River Notes / something like that

Target Audience:

This application is for anglers, particularly anyone interested in the Middlebury fly fishing club

Main Functionality:

This application allows anglers to log and analyze their fishing trips through an interactive map. Users can pin fishing spots, record details about conditions (weather, temperature, barometric pressure, time of day), and track the flies or lures they used. The app serves as both a personal fishing journal and a planning tool, helping anglers identify patterns and improve future success. By centralizing this information, it also creates opportunities for sharing knowledge within a community such as the Middlebury Fly Fishing Club.

The main components would be a form to submit a fishing trip, a map that displays where you have fished and the corresponding report, and a fish report search where users can filter by certain metrics like date, size, # of fish, etc.

If time allows, we could create a centralized feed where users can share catches if they desire.

Professor says

The <insert activity> tracker is another common project type. Getting maps to work can be time consuming, so a team doing this project would want to do a tech spike on that early. I’m intrigued about what analysis would lead to. I am not a fly-fisherman, but the folks I know who are are very secretive about their favorite spots, which adds an interesting twist to this style of site.

YESMID - Say Yes To Life

Target Audience:

YESMID is for anyone who’s tired of saying “maybe later” and wants to live life more boldly. Think college students who want to break out of the campus bubble, young adults who want to meet new people, or anyone ready to trade routine for stories worth telling. Stakeholders could also include clubs, community groups, or event organizers who want to create experiences people actually say yes to.

Main Functionality:

“YESMID’s mission is simple: push people out of their comfort zones by saying yes to the unexpected. Inspired by the Yes Theory philosophy, the app will act like a digital dare wheel — a fun, safe(ish) way to step into adventure.

Major epics: The Random Yes Button - Press it, and get a challenge that might completely flip your day. It could be small (“Say yes to grabbing coffee with someone you barely know”) or wild (“Say yes to joining a road trip with a stranger heading out of town”). Adventure Filters - Because not everyone can drop everything and climb a mountain on a Tuesday. Users set boundaries (time, money, comfort zone level) so challenges are doable but still exciting. YES Journal - A space to record every “yes.” Reflections, pictures, and proof that you did the thing. Over time, it becomes your personal highlight reel of bold choices. Community Adventures - Users can share their challenges and stories, inspire each other, and even say yes to group adventures. Imagine a leaderboard of the boldest “yeses” or campus-wide challenges like “Say yes to talking to the first person you see in the library.” Surprise Mode - For the brave: a challenge that ignores all filters. Total chaos. Total adventure. The point? To live life with fewer “no’s” and more “why nots.” YESMID helps ordinary days turn into stories you’ll tell for years.”

Professor says

This one is definitely different. The core functionality is a little under ambitious (at least in terms of development) as it could just be a list with a random number generator, however I see some promise here. Early work for this team would be fleshing out the interface to firm up exactly what the mechanics are. I could imagine, for example, supporting multiple “quests” so you could have a longer term adventure at the same time as a little quick side quest. You could keep track of stats as well like time to complete, daringness level, and rejection rate.

SaveMIDget - Student Budgeting Platform

Target Audience:

SaveMIDget is for college students who want to track their spending while also making informed choices about where to spend money. It helps students understand their personal finances and compare prices for common purchases (like groceries, food, or transportation) at locations near them or could be outside the local place as well.

Main Functionality:

SaveMIDget combines personal budgeting with local cost awareness. Major epics: Expense Tracking & Budgets - Students can log expenses, categorize them (food, transport, entertainment, etc.), and set personal budgets. Local Price Lookup - The app connects with APIs or datasets to show the cost of items/services near the student’s location. For example: “Coffee averages $2.50 at Dining Hall, $3.75 downtown café.” Spending Visualization - Charts/graphs to help students see where their money goes and how their spending compares with local averages. Recommendations - Based on data, the system can suggest smarter options (“You spend $40/week on groceries; here’s a store nearby with lower average prices”). Reminders & Alerts - Optional notifications if spending approaches/exceeds limits. The “why”: Students often overspend because they lack both visibility (what they spent) and context (what things should cost nearby). SaveMIDget provides both, helping students make informed financial decisions.

Professor says

I think this is a fine concept, however, the “local” prices suffers the same data problem as the grocery shopper. I agree that having a sense of what things “should” cost is part of making wise purchases, but I think that is probably out of scope.

You could show some statistics about what spending patterns of others on the app, but… there are two issues I would see

  • data privacy
  • This may have shifted slightly, but as of a few years ago, about 22% of Middlebury students come from the 1%. It is fairly obvious by the brands that occasionally become fads on campus that there is already a fair amount of “conspicuous spending” or “aspirational spending” on campus and comparing to other’s spending habits could end up having the opposite of the intended effect.

SkillMID - Peer-to-Peer Student Skill Exchange

Target Audience:

SkillMID is for college students who want to share, trade, or request skills within their campus community. It is designed for both students who have skills (e.g., tutoring, design, coding, music lessons) and those who need help with tasks or learning. By keeping it campus-only, SkillMID builds a safe, trusted environment.

Main Functionality:

“SkillMID acts as a peer-to-peer platform for exchanging skills and services. Major epics: Profile & Skill Listing - Each user can create a profile and list the skills they are offering (e.g.,”Java tutoring,” “poster design,” “piano lessons”) and/or tasks they need help with. Task & Service Board - A shared board where users can post requests or offers, filterable by category (academic, creative, practical, etc.). Search & Matching Engine - Students can search/filter by skill, rating, or availability. A matching algorithm can suggest relevant peers. Transaction System - Services can be exchanged in two modes: Direct trade (barter: “I’ll edit your essay if you help me with guitar”). Credit system (earn SkillMID credits for helping others, spend credits to request help). Ratings & Reviews - Lightweight trust/reputation system to encourage accountability. Campus Verification - Login restricted to .edu accounts to ensure safety. SkillMID makes this process structured, reliable, and trackable while encouraging collaboration and community.”

Professor says

This seems like a fine project. I would probably advise staying out of the transaction side. I like the idea of the credit system from a community standpoint, but I think it would be better if that was just left to students offering skills to specify if they want to be paid and the rate they expect.

An important side of this project that isn’t described here would be moderators. You need to have people vet services and reviews. It would be easy to use the site to offer illicit “services” or bully other users. If you want ratings I would suggest a system that doesn’t have written reviews. There are a lot of ways to get this wrong. If you want something written, one approach might be a positive only system like providing testimonials.

Win The Pennant

Target Audience:

Baseball Fans and those just interested in the player valuation or trying to show General Managers how to do their jobs

Main Functionality:

The functionality of the application is to recreate the movie MoneyBall. Users get to simulate an off-season for their favorite team, where they can create trade packages to acquire their favorite players. This application would allow one to input players, prospects, and cash considerations with the objective to simulate a potential off season of rebuilding for a given team. The idea is that every player is given a monetary valuation based off how much he is making over x amount of years, and the goal for the user is to put together a trade package that is greater than or equal to the valuation of the player they want on their team. This application would give users a sense of how to build a team on a budget, how to rebuild their favorite team, or simply how to build the worst team. The possibilities are endless.

Professor says

It would be important when doing this project to not forget that you will have administrators as stakeholders. You will need to plan application flows that allow them to enter in and enter the data.

I would also ask if you want users to be able to save their various attempts and if there would be some functionality where the work of other users of the app would be relevant (leader boards? I don’t know enough of this domain to suggest what that might look like)

Smart Scheduler (up to change)

Target Audience:

The primary users of this application are:

Students, Professionals, people who value organization and want to be productive with their time and balance their schedules AUTOMATICALLY. If expanded, it could be helpful for employers or companies seeking to improve productivity and time management.

Main Functionality:

Epic 1: Task Creation and Structuring (REQUIRED)

As a student I want to create a task with a due date and estimated duration so that I can plan my workload realistically. As a student, I want the option to automatically split longer tasks into smaller chunks so I can work in manageable intervals rather than in one long block.

Epic 2: Automatic AI Scheduling (REQUIRED)

As a student, I want my tasks to appear in my calendar and to be automatically scheduled around my existing events so that my calendar is optimized without me needing to adjust it manually. As a student, I want my tasks to be broken up into smaller blocks that populate my available time slots so I can work incrementally and avoid burnout.

Epic 3: Personalization and Preferences

As a student, I want to set boundaries on when tasks can be scheduled (e.g., not before 9am or after 10pm) so my personal preferences are respected and no unrealistic timeslots are scheduled. As a student, I want to define events as “fixed” or “flexible” so the algorithm knows which events can be moved to create an optimal schedule. As a student, I want to customize my schedule style (balanced distribution of tasks across days vs. focused workdays and rest days) so the calendar fits my working style.

Epic 4: Calendar and Event Management As a student, I want to visualize my daily, weekly, and monthly schedules so I can track both tasks and events in one place. As student, I want to integrate my existing calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook) so that the software can work with my real schedule without having to duplicate my tasks. (STRETCH possibly API)

Epic 5: Progress Tracking and Adjustment and Stats

As a user, I want the system to update my schedule if tasks take longer/shorter than expected so that my calendar adapts in real time. As a user, I want to receive reminders for scheduled task blocks so I can stay on track. As a user, I want to be able to view some stats on what types of tasks are consuming most of my time and potential room for improvements.

Professor says

This project will live or die based on nailing down the initial UI and UX. I would expect a lot of early sketches and storyboards.