The Catalyst App

About

About

Research is, everybody who is part of that enterprise knows that, about linking together ideas. However, you as a researcher know only a limited range of persons – in particular when you are fairly new in that world, e.g. as a first-year PhD student. On top of that the peers in the research environment usually share the background with you. What if you have this specific question and you know somebody can answer it, but it is somebody from a different area? Say, you are a biologist and you have never heard of t-SNE, but you are seeking for someone who might help you in finding clusters in population data of Oystercatcher populations. Or what if you have this specific method for relative, comparison-based classification but you do not know where to use it? Catalyst is the app you are searching for.

Catalyst is based on so-called QI-cards (Question/Idea-cards). A QI-card contains a shortly summarized, understandable research question or an idea for a collaboration. You as a user can create those cards. Other users then get to see those cards by swiping through an entire pile of them. If interested swipe right, if not swipe left. If the creator of the QI-card which you find interesting as well is interested in one of your QI-cards, you get matched. Catalyst links you together by exchanging contact information.

Download our summary poster or check out our video: