Student Roommate Matching Portal

Finding a roommate is one of the highest-stakes decisions a student makes, and it currently happens through chaotic hostel-group chats: "need 1 roommate near campus, budget 6k" followed by fifty DMs and zero compatibility information. Mismatches — a night owl with an early riser, a smoker with someone asthmatic — surface only after the rent is paid. This project builds a structured alternative: profiles capture the dimensions that actually predict cohabitation success, a compatibility score ranks every candidate against the viewer, discovery is filtered by budget, locality and move-in date, and contact happens through a request workflow with accept/decline rather than cold DMs. Safety tooling — verification badges, photo control, report/block — is designed in from the start, not bolted on.

1. A student creates a profile: college, budget, locality, move-in date and lifestyle answers (sleep schedule, cleanliness, smoking, guests, food).
2. The matching engine computes compatibility against every other profile from weighted dimensions and budget overlap.
3. Discovery shows profile cards ranked by compatibility, with filters for budget, locality and move-in date.
4. Opening a card shows the full breakdown — which dimensions match and which clash — before any contact.
5. The viewer sends a roommate request with a message; the recipient sees it under requests with accept or decline.
6. On acceptance, contact details unlock and a chat thread opens; either side can form a group room from accepted matches.

Tech stack:

• HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (frontend)
• PHP 8 / Laravel (backend)
• MySQL (profiles, preferences, requests)
• Weighted scoring algorithm (matching)
• REST endpoints for discovery and requests

• [Compatibility scoring] Every profile pair gets a percentage score from weighted lifestyle dimensions — sleep, cleanliness, smoking, guests, budget overlap.
• [Structured roommate requests] Requests move through pending, accepted and declined states with accept/decline actions and a message thread per request.
• [Filtered discovery] Filter by budget range, locality, move-in window and minimum compatibility; sort by score, budget or recency.
• [Verification badges] College email, phone and ID verification tiers shown as badges on the profile card.
• [Privacy controls] Photo visibility and contact details are revealed only after request acceptance, never on the public card.
• [Roommate groups] Accepted pairs can form a group room (2–4 members) visible as a unit to landlords or other seekers.
• [Report and block] Safety tooling with report reasons and blocking that removes the profile from discovery both ways.

• Complete portal source code (frontend + backend)
• MySQL schema with migrations (profiles, preferences, requests, groups)
• Weighted compatibility scoring module with documented weights
• Discovery, request workflow and group-room modules
• Verification badge and privacy-control system
• Seeded demo profiles across budgets and localities
• Project report PDF (matching algorithm, weight design, ER diagram, test cases)
• PPT presentation for final review
• Viva Q&A preparation document (scoring weights, request state machine, safety design)

• Compatibility is a weighted heuristic over self-reported answers, not a validated psychological instrument — the report states this plainly.
• Verification in the demo is badge logic on seeded data; real college-email verification needs the buyer's mail setup.
• Chat in the demo is a per-request message thread; real-time messaging is future scope.
• The portal does not list properties or handle rent payments — it matches people, not flats.
• Location matching is locality-name based, not GPS proximity.