ABSTRACT VIEW
"MY-XPERT": A PROGRESSIVE WEB APPLICATION EXPLOITING CROWDSENSING FOR ENABLING AN EXPERT MINING ONLINE SOCIAL COMMUNITY
N. Souleles1, E. Papaioannou2, C. Kaklamanis2
1 University of Patras (GREECE)
2 University of Patras and CTI "Diophantus" (GREECE)
Students enrolling in university usually have to move to the city where their department is located and start a sort of new life away from their families and friends. Erasmus students also face a similar situation even for a shorter period of time. Being new in an unknown environment, a well-known challenge for students is finding trustworthy professionals and technicians like for example a particular doctor, a good workout center or driving school or a reliable electrician or plumber for their apartment or a mechanic for their vehicle service. What usually happens is that such information is experientially aquired and circulated among small - perhaps closed - groups of friends without being archived and shared within the community. Especially for students with fewer social connections, it is even more difficult to efficiently deal with such everyday life issues. However, in our modern era, the vast majority of students have an internet-connected device and are members of various social networks.

Taking these observations into account and motivated by our will to support local and international students by facilitating their everyday life, we designed and implemented "My-Xpert", an online crowdsensing-based application allowing registered users to form an online social community where they can easily locate professionals/experts in their desirable area. Registered users can post their recommendations based on their experiences while - at the same time - they can exploit information already obtained by other users for finding specific professionals they need close to a selected location. Especially for users deciding to share their current location, the application automatically provides recommendations for close-by professionals of various categories or recommends users also depicting them on an interactive map.

"My-Xpert" is a responsive web application with an elegant and user-friendly interface currently available in Greek and English. Furthermore, as a progressive web application (PWA), "My-Xpert" can be used as a website and mobile app on any device. Users can add the application to their home screen. Then, when launched from the home screen, "My-Xpert" becomes top-level, full-screen, and works also offline with no internet connection required. "My-Xpert" has been developed using React JS and Typescript for the front end, NestJS for the back-end as well as Material UI and Leaflet for components of the application.

Keywords: Progressive Web Application (PWA), expert mining, crowdsensing, online social community, location and experience-based recommendations, easier student life, React JS, Typescript, NestJS, Material UI, Leaflet.

Event: INTED2025
Track: Digital Transformation of Education
Session: Digital Transformation
Session type: VIRTUAL