Entrepreneurship
ConnectUL has been selected to represent Ireland at the upcoming Red Bull Basement University Global Workshop 2019 in Canada this December.
Every student has a timetable, making those timetables work together is our goal. A social network that will find its space directly in the lives of students, relevant to them.
Red Bull Basement University – a global platform for students to innovate and co-create positive change – has invited winning student teams from 27 countries, to pitch their ideas for improving student life. University of Limerick students Aenne Schmidt-Stohn and Marcus Naughton created ConnectUL to solve timetabling issues for all students through a web app that tells you who is in each of your lectures and tutorials and allows you to connect with them.
What is ConnectUL?
ConnectUL is an app that allows you to create different groups; assignment groups, friends, and housemates and synchronizes the timetables of all group members to create an overview showing when everyone is free to hang out, meet up or work on a project.
Scheduling meetups will be made even easier as the web app will synchronize your timetable with your google or icloud calendar so that you have all your appointments, meetings and classes in one place on all your devices, improving both the college and social life experience for students.
The pair head-off to Canada this month, but are eager to develop their idea as much as possible before then, and with the help of Red Bull, Nexus and Cisco, they have been provided with funding, professional mentorship, and a workspace.
We chatted to them and discovered their inspirations, and aspirations and how they work as a team.
Both have been ambitious from a young age
Marcus wrote his first piece of code on his dad’s Dell laptop, in the backseat of a car at the age of six. While Aenne has not only moved to a new country to pursue a degree in Applied Languages and Business (in her second language), but is also class rep, co-team lead of Enactus social entrepreneurship society and co-organizing innospace, university of limerick’s first entrepreneurship and innovation hub.
They both bring something different to the team, and always wanted to work together
Before they entered Red Bull Basement University, Aenne and Marcus had already decided that they would build a website for students… it was just a matter of nailing down what. Marcus’s technological and coding background, combined with Aenne’s marketing skills and experience in website and content creation made them the perfect team.
Intelligence and hardwork are not a problem for them…
The main challenge they face is lack of time, as Marcus is on work placement and Aenne is in the last weeks of the college semester…both are weighed down with assignments, but are dedicating all of their spare time to develop the project.
They want to use data for good
While major social networks use big data for balance sheet returns, we’re hoping we can use data gathered to find out what questions we should be asking, and what we should answer them with. Gathering information about the student body in a privacy-focused and ethical manner, and then using it for the empowerment of students is something I’m more excited for than the service itself
They have one problem…
One regret the pair have is the ‘UL’ in their name. They are excited for the “insanely big” opportunity to scale the project and don't want to be restricted by the name. They recognise that the only criteria they need to implement ConnectUL into other universities is an online timetable.
But for now
They are excited to develop the project as much as possible before the Global Red Bull Basement University Workshop in Canada. In the future, they look forward to on-boarding new talent and franchising the app to colleges across the country or even the globe.
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