Students from the Faculty of Management took second place in the international Showcase Competition, organised as part of the AIS 2021 Student Chapter Leadership Conference by one of the world's largest organisations of AIS information systems communities. They created an app aimed at people with networking problems, extreme shyness and social phobia.
AIS Student Chapter members from around the world came together on April 9 and 10, 2021 for the first virtual AIS 2021 Student Chapter Leadership Conference organised by Illinois State University. A total of 267 participants from 47 universities and 4 countries attended the event.
The meeting was an opportunity to present competition entries and award achievements of research circles affiliated with the Association for Information Systems (AIS).
- 'AIS associates the so-called Student Chapters. One of them is located at the Faculty of Management and functions as AIS SC University of Gdansk - Scientific Club of Information Systems E-XPERT. It is on its behalf that we take part in competitions every year and we achieve high places. The same happened this time,' - says Hubert Kołcz, a student at the Faculty of Management, University of Gdańsk, one of the members of the team. - 'The Showcase Competition, in which we took part, is organised in the United States mainly for students from American universities. Our team was the only non-American team awarded in the 2021 AIS Student Chapter Competition.'
The team representing the University of Gdańsk consisted of Klara Dargacz, a 3rd-year student of Computer Science and Econometrics and a 2nd-year student of Mathematical Modelling and Data Analysis (co-founder of the project, responsible for the business layer and market research), Irina Frolova, a 2nd-year student of Informatics and Econometrics (creator of the visual design of the application and a promotional video, supporting the team in the technical layer), Hubert Kołcz, a 3rd-year student of Informatics and Econometrics (co-founder, coordinator and leader of the project, creator of the solution architecture and the concept of the application).
'Talk-to' application
Students from the Faculty of Management at UG addressed the problem of social withdrawal in their project and found a way to reduce it. To this end, they created the Talk-to application, which is intended to respond to the needs of people who want to actively participate in social life, but who for some reasons do not have such an opportunity.
- 'We have often met people who, in the case of a strong crisis, are afraid to ask for support from the closest person and can only count on free psychological help after a long waiting period. The perceived problem is exacerbated by the restrictions associated with the coronavirus pandemic. We have found a way to reduce it at least a little,' - explains Hubert Kołcz. - 'We created an application targeted mainly at people with contact problems. In this way, we wanted to involve in social life every young person who feels excluded for some reason. Our competition entry, which we worked on from July 2020, consisted among other things of an 8-minute video presentation. In it, we presented the aforementioned social problem in the form of a directed film. We also presented a preliminary version of the application we designed to the competition commission.'
The UG students' project was appreciated - they took second place in the Showcase Competition.
- 'This is a great achievement, not all projects submitted at the elimination stage qualified for the finals. It is worth mentioning that the Showcase Competition was characterised by the highest level of competition due to the largest number of projects taking part in it. Competencies that were checked included the ability to present a problem and solve it in a way expected by the committee,' explains Hubert Kołcz.
At the moment, the application is in the development stage, so we have to wait a while before it will be available to a wider audience.
About the Association for Information Systems (AIS)
AIS is a professional association for individuals and organizations that conduct research, teaching, practice and study of information systems around the world. Founded in 1994, the organisation brings together academics and professionals from chapters in over 100 countries. The association publishes journals, organises conferences and provides a forum for professors and information systems managers.
