Project proposal by Gladys Yu
You have an hour between classes, so you head to Leavey to get some work done. Every seat is taken, and the one open table has no outlet. Sound familiar?
USC Study Spot Finder is a website where students share and rate study spots around campus: library floors, lounges, cafés, outdoor tables, even empty classrooms. Students rate each spot on the things that actually matter when you're trying to study: how loud it is, how crowded it gets, whether there are outlets, and how good the wifi is.
Right now there isn't one place to find this. Google reviews rate whole buildings, not specific floors, and library room booking only shows rooms you can reserve. This site would fill that gap.
Mainly USC students who study on campus, especially commuters and anyone with long breaks between classes. It would be extra helpful for freshmen and transfer students who don't know the good spots yet.
Student clubs and study groups could also use it to find places to meet.
Each study spot has basic info: the building, floor, type of space, number of seats, hours, and amenities like whiteboards or printers. Our group would add a starting list of popular spots, and users could add new ones they find.
The most important data comes from students. Each review has ratings from 1 to 5 for noise, crowds, outlets, wifi and overall, plus an optional comment and the time they were there. Over time, this lets the site show things like when each spot is usually busy or quiet.
Students would log in to leave reviews and save their favorite spots. Later, the site could email users helpful updates about their favorite spots and show simple charts of busy times.
Here's my first version of the database. The main table is spots, which connects to buildings, spot types and amenities. Reviews connect a user to a spot, and favorites save which spots each user likes.
