Date of Award

6-11-2024

Document Type

Thesis - SCU Access Only

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2024

Department

Computer Science and Engineering

First Advisor

Yi Fang

Abstract

Adapting to a new work environment can be extremely challenging. Interns and recent graduates may often find it difficult to meet people in their workplaces, causing them to feel socially isolated. While companies do often have happy hours, this often proves ineffective in developing strong friendships that continue in and out of the office, and connecting with others through LinkedIn or an internal employee directory requires manually searching. This problem is only exacerbated by the increase in remote and hybrid work, leaving employees with less time to create in-person connections with their colleagues.

To address this critical problem, we have created Newcomer, a mobile app and website in Flutter that connects employees at their new companies based on interests and hobbies they may have. Using machine learning hosted on a cloud Python server, we can recommend different groups that employees can join that are unique to each company based on an initial survey that asks for their interests. Members can then connect with others that share the same interests through a group chatting feature and schedule activities or events to help foster in person connections. In addition, by creating a matrix of users in different groups, we can also make recommendations for new groups to join based on interests that a user’s coworkers have. Through Newcomer, we hope to increase people’s social networks at work.

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