Been collecting some kgp-related ideas for a while, which I never managed to build. Putting down some of these here, hoping some reader gets inspiration :)

1. Virtual KGP campus / Virtual 2.2 / KGP Metaverse

   • In a nutshell: gather.town for a college campus, modelled on the actual campus.
   • Problem: Pandemic has made human interaction very sparse and scheduled, leaving little space for chance meetings and things to do together, like going for walks on 2.2s etc. This is because we are in independent environments in our homes. I believe that a lack of shared environment creates a feeling of disconnect among people despite having the option of communicating.
   • Solution: Create a virtual world on similar lines of RPGs (role-playing games). Users can move around in a shared environment using characters and chat on text or voice based on proximity of their characters in the virtual environment. Introduce games, collectibles (NFTs? hehe). Users can also create and customize their own ‘rooms’. I have an old Pokemon video game (Pokemon Ruby, Emerald) aesthetic in mind.
   • Challenges: Finding a framework to develop this is difficult. Design seems like a mammoth task. Need to build ways for user retention beyond the initial hype.

2. Confessions analysis.
   Scrape the entire KGP confessions page(s) for post content, reactions and comments. While this project is somewhat useless, it would be interesting to look at the trends in topics, sentiments, post/comment popularity etc. especially over the course of the pandemic. Definitely a more interesting sentiment analysis project than the cliched tweet analysis one. Bonus: Convert this into an interactive web-based dashboard.

   • Challenges: Facebook’s hellish API and strategies to deter scrapers. Hindi words written in English.

3. Venting/Bakar room for KGP.
   People can talk to each other anonymously/pseudonymously. The platform can have rooms/personal chats. Kinda like a closed discord community with anonymity ensured.

4. KGP Fundae.

   • Problem: Queries are often repeated and a lot of them go unanswered.
     • Solution: Build a bot that can post links to previous posts that have an answer in the comments.
   • Problem: People would like to help, but there is no good way to lead them to the right query
     • Solution: Create a database of students/alums and their respective fields of expertise (students/alums can sign up after outreach). Build a mailing service that sends them a weekly email with questions on the page that they can answer.
   • Build a separate platform for queries altogether, like a KGP-specific Quora.
   • Challenges: Issues in working with FB, as mentioned earlier.

5. Public professor feedback.
   Attempt to solve for mapping of incentives to skill/effort put into teaching the course (unfortunately, the only apparent incentive is registration in elective courses). Reviews mostly rely on word-of-mouth or anonymous answers in Fundae at the moment. ERP review is not revealed to students. Needs to be public and anonymous. Filtered for unhelpful/abusive reviews.

   • Challenges: Trust, people not making a genuine effort after the semester ends (except to rant). Admin taking action to take the website down.

6. KGP podcast
   This was a dear ambition, but I realized it was quite difficult to do this in the online semester. Sitting down with someone face-to-face makes the conversation a hundred times more comfortable and easy-flowing, which can be enough to overcome the self-consciousness arising from recording. However, that is not the case in a Google Meet meeting. Avoid career-related topics (makes for boring, unidimensional conversation), more focused on discussion of ideas, trends, events in and out of KGP.

7. Hackathon- Product + Business
   This idea was inspired by the Drishtee event in Inter IIT Tech Meet 2021. I felt like it would be a cool idea to have a hackathon that incorporates both the product and business side of building something. Will be closer to building a mock startup, students on both sides can learn about the other side.

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