Student to student: An app created to connect classmates

A couple of months into the pandemic, junior and computer science major Atulya Reddy came up with an idea to create an app that would allow students to support one another through online semesters.

Reddy says that although students can technically access their classmates’ emails on Canvas, she wanted to provide a service that improves the potential for successful connections and eliminates the fear of rejection.

Mya Schmitz, also a UW junior and one of Reddy’s close high school friends, joined the team as they started working towards releasing the app, now called Demic, for fellow UW–Madison students.

The team is made up of two UW students, three undergraduates at other universities, and a graduate student who have all been collaborating together.

“I brought my idea to the University of Illinois-Urbana Champagne’s (UIUC) hackathon in August. I found team members and we spent the week building a prototype of the app, which was called Virmote at the time,” said Reddy.

The basic premise of the app is to connect students who’ve been kept apart by remote learning. Students can enter information about their majors, courses, availability, interests, etc., and customize which criteria they care about having in common with a classmate. If users are mutually interested in connecting, they’ll be matched and can start chatting.

“Demic helps students connect with their classmates, whether they’re looking for study buddies, friends, or both,” said Schmitz.

The name Demic ties together the key concepts the app addresses.

“The app is helping us survive academics during a pandemic. I immediately noticed the common suffix, and that’s how the name Demic came to be,” said Reddy.

The app will be open to UW–Madison students when it first launches, but the group hopes to expand to other campus environments in the future.

The app will be free for download as the students are not doing it for any profit and have had to pay for the process entirely out of pocket. Students should watch for its launch.

The process of creating the app is something that they have enjoyed but it has also come with its fair share of challenges.

“Time has definitely been a big obstacle with the development of the app. All team members have been working on the app on top of school or a full-time job,” said Schmitz.

Connecting with other students in your classes just got a whole lot easier.