Group Members: Meena Farag, Mariam Sawires, Marvin Murphy, Jagannath Kshtriya and James Agyemang

Course Director: Professor Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh

Project Adviser: Professor Wolfgang Stuerzlinger

Mentor: Mourad Amara

Name: Meena Farag
Stream: Space Engineering
Title: Project Manager and Programmer

Role: to overlook the entire project and review all group members' work before anything is delivered, as well as compile all research and documentation fit for the final report.

Meena is also responsible for writing code in Java for the Android OS. He will be working on the BlueTooth/GPS connectivity between users to allow for data transfer in the P2P part of the social network.

Name: Mariam Sawires
Stream: Computer Engineering
Title: Software Designer and Programmer

Role: Research, design and write code for data management and manipulation of user profiles and information.

Mariam will design and code user profiles in Java for the Android OS. She is also responsible for data management and matching algorithms used to link users as well as setting up the client-server part of the social network.

Name: Marvin Murphy
Stream: Computer Engineering
Title: Android Graphics Designer and Programmer

Role: Graphics/control/layout design and programming for the entire application for the Android OS.

Junior will design and code the graphics and controls that give the user access to features of the app. He will be creating a library of all the images the app will use and construct an interactive view. Junior will also be overlooking all coding done by group members and integrating all parts of the project together. Junior was also responsible for the local data storage and data management system of the app.

Name: James Agyemang
Stream: Computer Engineering
Title: IOS Graphics Designer and Programmer

Role: Graphics and control programming and layout of the entire application for the IOS.

James will design and code the graphics and controls of the app for the IOS, as well as work on the development of communication between users (chat).

Name: Jagannath Kshtriya
Stream: Space Engineering
Title: IOS Developer

Role: To develop code for the IOS platform that allows wireless data transfer using Bluetooth, WIFI, or GPS.

Jagannath will be using Objective C in order to code for data transfer on the IOS platform. His main objective is to maximize the efficiency of data transfer between iOS or between iOS and Android OS to ensure the app is relatively quick.

For the scope of this course we hope to develop a complete social network application for university students. This app manipulates the use of Bluetooth technology in order to transfer data between users within BT ranges. The purpose of this app is to link University students with similar programs and/or majors in order to promote social interaction by providing natural ice breakers through user profiles as well as perform transactions such as buying and selling of books and/or tutoring services.

IceBreaker is not just another social app. We have started this project based on our experience at York University and developed it using the tools we have obtained from many courses.

During Frosh Week or when trying to find a group for your first school project, you would be going around trying to form as many connections as you can with people in the same program as you. IceBreaker helps you to do that by proving you with basic information that will allow you to approach the person.

Furthermore, students can use all the help they need during university whether financial or educational. When going around campus, you find many posters advertising the selling of used books. Even when using a Facebook group, you have to keep scrolling down the page in order to find the book you need and by then it might already be sold but the post is so further down the page that the seller could not find it quickly enough to delete it and hence left it there. We have integrated this buying-and-selling-of-books' transaction into our app to allow for users to convieniently advertise the books they want to sell, easily delete it if already sold and for others to be notified when a book they desire is being sold by another user.

Furthermore, using our tutoring services, a user can advertise their areas of strengths in certain courses offering to help those younger students that might be struggling with them.

In this manner, our app is very specific in that it integrates everything a student needs in one place.

The image above shows the main page of our app. Once a user obtains, via bluetooth, a list of nearby users, their profiles will be displayed in the form of “bubbles in motion” with their profile pictures in the inner circle (that picture will be grey if the person is incognito) and the outer circle is colored to indicate the similarity between the users:

• Green: no similarity
• Pink: Common School
• Yellow: Common Major
• Blue: This user has/needs something of interest to you (a book or a tutoring service)

If a user has more than one thing in common with you we prioritize based on the list above where common school is of least priority, followed by common major followed by common transaction which currently is of highest priority.

The image below shows how a person in incognito mode appears on other users' homepages as well as how other users appear on his homepage.

To maintain mutual respect between users, when a person chooses to appear incognito to other users, he can no longer view other users' profiles (all users appear incognito on his homepage).

We have successfully managed to transfer user profiles via BT, allow users to add books and tutoring services that they need or offer and successfully find out what is in common with other users in their vicinity through the colors of the “bubbles in motion” featured in their homepage.

• Users can now set up their profile indicating the school they go to and their major
  

• Users can offer and/or demand services such as buying and selling of books or tutoring services
  

• Users can now view who has school (pink) or course (yellow) in common with them or who has/needs something they need/have (blue)
  

While our app is built on a decentralized P2P network that exchanges profile information between users via Bluetooth, (and hence the users' information are stored locally on the handheld devices) we are moving towards a centralized P2P network. In the centralized P2P network only the handheld devices' IDs will be exchanged between users via Bluetooth which are in turn used to obtain, via the Internet, the users' profiles that are stored on a server. Also, for convenience, we hope to maintain the exchange of profiles via Bluetooth in order to make our app usable in places where a user cannot access the Internet.

Furthermore, whilst users currently are prompted to enter all their information manually via text fields, once the server is setup, certain textfields will be exchanged with scroll down menues for a more convenient user interface.

Whilst we are currently working on the development of a complete social network for University students, we are hoping in the future to expand our app to cater to more people.

Lassonde School of Engineering ( $1000)