Development of a Peer-to-Peer Mobile Social Application to Broaden Participation

The popularity of mobile phones has enabled the creation of many social applications that can promote social interaction and connection. Furthermore, 91% of the population in the U.S. use mobile phones with a variety of social applications available (i.e., Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn).  Few of these social applications target underserved students. Underserved students across the U.S. lack opportunities, role models, advisement, and usually are isolated.  We want to create a mobile application that can be used to serve opportunities to underserved students.  The application will connect students with resources and a community of peers.  Students who would not normally be considered for research could be informed about research opportunities and experiences as well as inform them about ways they could build their capacity and become more competitive.  We will design a server application that will run in the cloud to handle chat, friends, user authentication, and message board postings.  Along with this, we will design a user interface and logic for a mobile application, initially on the Android OS.  A functional mobile application prototype will be developed for communication between students and mentors, and for opportunities to be shared between students.  This project will give any student, including the underserved, a tool to communicate, collaborate, and find opportunities from mentors or other students.  This ultimately would benefit many students who would otherwise not be exposed to these opportunities because of their wealth, social rank, or other disadvantages.