Scholara

LOG · WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT DOES

Scholara is a platform to connect students to research opportunities on their campus, and PIs with other PIs for research collaboration and further funding. Students drop in their resume and swipe through openings ranked for them; labs get their applicants ranked by fit and clearly summarized, so no cold emails are needed. It's the new version of the matching algorithm I first built for Ursearch, picked up by UMich.

WHY

Working with big institutions, usually whatever role you are brought on for, you stick to that, and the institution treats you as just the fulfillment of that role. As the relationship with UMich Innovation Partnerships developed, their attitude was totally different: they see potential and understand insight. I was drawn to stay on, and agreed to onboard, because of their attitude and how my voice and decisions were respected beyond my engineering input. As those decisions bore great results, the relationship evolved to be around the business vision as much as engineering. My calls right now drive the product and business development of the project, and are met with respect and applied accordingly, which is rare for a big institution like UMich.

WHAT I WORKED ON

The full stack of the new platform: frontend, backend and the algorithm. I also made the promo video.

WHAT CAME OF IT

So far it has 160 labs, 600 opportunities and hundreds of students, and it continues to expand to other departments and programs.