JOM!

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  Create a session

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  Session card (from explore sessions page)

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  Explore sessions

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  Join a session

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  Main screen

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  Personal profile page

Inspiration

University residential life puts hundreds of students in close proximity, yet meaningful connections rarely form beyond immediate neighbours or orientation groups. We noticed that freshmen, international students, and exchange students were living side by side but had no real way to discover each other. The rich networking and social potential of places like NUS residences was being left entirely to chance. We wanted to build something that turned passive coexistence into an active, self-organising community, and the Bahasa Melayu phrase "JOM!" (let's go) perfectly captured the spontaneous, inclusive energy we were going for.

What it does

JOM! lets any NUS residential student post a spontaneous activity in seconds, a supper run, a jam session, a campus walk, and lets others discover and join ahead of time. Students can filter activities by time, date, type, and difficulty level. A notification system alerts creators when someone expresses interest, and reminds joiners before an activity begins. Authentication via NUS email ensures only verified students can participate, keeping the community safe and trusted.

How we built it

We built JOM! as a web-based platform (no app store, no device-specific development required) with a clean, intuitive interface designed to be accessible to everyone. We used NUS email two-factor authentication to verify users, leveraging existing infrastructure to minimise development complexity. The platform supports activity creation, browsing with filters, interest expression, and a basic notification system, all kept deliberately lightweight so it could realistically go from ideation to launch quickly.

Challenges we ran into

Designing for a diverse user base (freshmen, exchange students, international students) with varying levels of tech familiarity, which pushed us toward a very simple, low-friction UI.

Balancing spontaneity with enough structure, activity posts needed to be casual and low-commitment while still providing useful information like time, location, and group size.

Scoping the project realistically within hackathon time constraints, particularly around the authentication flow and notification system.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Building a complete, functional prototype within the hackathon timeframe.

Creating a user experience genuinely accessible to non-technical students, which was a core design goal from the start.

Capturing the spirit of spontaneous community connection in something as simple as a single activity post.

What we learned

The best social tools reduce friction, not add features. Every design decision came back to: how do we make it easier to just show up?

Designing for real community dynamics (word-of-mouth, physical proximity, low-stakes entry) is just as important as the technical build.

What's next for JOM!

Expanding beyond residences to other NUS communities. Recurring activity support for student-organisers who want to run regular sessions without reposting. Simple profile pages so students can see a little about who they're joining, shared faculty, interests, or home country, to spark conversation before the activity even starts. Chat feature/ linking telegram handle to allow ease of communication.

Built With

• web