ResearchBridge

ResearchBridge is a platform that connects high-school students with professor-led research opportunities. It helps students find professors whose research interests align with their skills and interests, and enables them to reach out with personalized emails.

🚀 Features

• AI-Powered Resume Parsing: Extracts skills, interests, and background to find perfect professor matches
• Professor Matching: Algorithm matches students with professors based on research interests alignment
• Email Generation: Creates customized outreach emails for professors
• Dashboard: Tracks matches, emails, and referrals
• Referral System: Allows users to earn credits by referring friends

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Frontend: React 18, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS
• UI Components: shadcn/ui
• Routing: react-router-dom
• State Management: Zustand
• Forms & Validation: react-hook-form + zod
• Icons: lucide-react
• Animations: framer-motion

🔧 Setup & Development

1. Clone the repository

git clone <repository-url>
cd research-bridge

2. Install dependencies

npm install

3. Run the development server

npm run dev

🔄 Connecting to a Back-end

The current implementation uses mock data and simulated API calls. To connect to a real back-end:

1. Resume Parsing API:

   • Replace the useResumeParse hook in src/lib/store.ts with actual API calls to your resume parsing service.
   • Ensure your API returns data in a format compatible with the Resume interface.

2. User Authentication:

   • Set up Firebase Authentication or your preferred auth service.
   • Replace the mock authentication in the Signup.tsx component with real auth calls.

3. Professor Database:

   • Replace the mockProfessors array in src/lib/store.ts with API calls to fetch professors from your database.
   • The API should return data compatible with the Professor interface.

4. Email Generation:

   • Connect the email generation functionality in ProfessorCard.tsx to your actual email generation service.
   • Ensure your API returns email content that can be displayed in the dialog.

5. Subscription Management:

   • Implement a payment gateway (Stripe, PayPal, etc.) to handle subscription payments.
   • Update the subscription logic in the Pricing.tsx component.

📁 Project Structure

• /src/components: UI components organized by feature
  • /ui: shadcn UI components
  • /landing: Components for the landing page
  • /dashboard: Components for the dashboard
  • /shared: Shared components (NavBar, Footer, etc.)
• /src/pages: Page components for each route
• /src/lib: Shared utility functions and store
• /src/hooks: Custom React hooks

🧪 Testing

Run tests with:

npm test

📄 License

MIT