Evgeny Pavlov, a postgraduate student in the Management of Information Systems and Digital Innovation course, has invented an LSE-exclusive interface for students to make friends over ‘random coffee’.
The LSE Random Coffee Bot utilizes Facebook’s API coupled with Pavlov’s own server and algorithm that he uses to match people with potential new mates based on shared interests. For Pavlov, the innovation spurred out of feeling relatively isolated as a new LSE student. Luckily for him, Pavlov doubled his LSE social circle thanks to the bot.
The bot acquired praise from his course-mates in November when he launched the prototype and recently, more than 200 students signed up to the interface after its university-wide debut three weeks ago*.
“I just found out that people were feeling just like me; they felt like they were missing out on socializing with their classmates and people from the LSE because they just hate going to pubs,” he said. “But everybody has to do coffee or lunch; might as well just talk to someone.”
Amy Vatcha, Pavlov’s course-mate who signed up for the debut bot, expressed that she was just curious to meet her other coursemates who she otherwise did not see outside of class.
“My time is tight because I work part-time in addition to my studies but I would definitely carve out time to connect with other people when the opportunity comes up, which is why I signed up for the coffee chat bot,” she said.
Alex Korolchuk, another MISDI postgrad, wanted to use the bot to discover the diversity of LSE’s student body. “I was really excited to exchange my ideas or thoughts with these kinds of people to understand the global society better,” he said.
Pavlov claimed that the popularity of the bot is due to the inherent ease that software provides to initiating social interaction.
“What the bot does is it basically takes out all the anxiety out of the way so it basically just tells you this is the person who wants to meet you who you would like to meet as well,” he said. “Also, it might feel weird to just ask someone out for lunch or coffee because people just don’t do that, but when software does this for you it basically eliminates this anxiety.”
Pavlov and his course-mates all expressed variations of feeling stifled socially by the culture and demands of LSE. Lack of time, an LSE networking culture, and unconscious apathy can all feed into inevitably lacking LSE friends.
“I can’t imagine myself going to social and networking events with all of the deadlines coming up,” said Pavlov.
“The general perception I have for this School is that its environment is somewhat similar to an ‘office’ rather than a campus-type university, compared to my Bachelor’s degree in Newcastle,” said Korolchuk. “The relationships that are formulated here are mostly based on networking and formal exchange of experiences, which makes them hard to maintain in the long-term.”
Pavlov is continually fine-tuning the interface, as evident with the recent add-on of a feedback mechanism which Pavlov will use to respond to suggestions and concerns personally. When asked if dating opportunists might be a concern, Pavlov emphatically asserted the Bot’s primary, singular, and sole aim: friendship.
“I think that there are people who want to make new non-romantic connections either for networking or friendship, and this group is hugely underserved in the app space,” he said.
Students have responded positively to the Random Coffee Bot’s interface and the socializing opportunities it has afforded them. Korolchuk met five people from the bot and Vatcha met four, and they both said that all encounters thus far have been positive.
“The bot works perfectly well, [and] ever since me and Evgeny discussed the issue of communicating with coursemates, the bot works perfectly well to match different people,” said Korolchuk. “I am really proud of him to take this idea further and develop it on a larger, school-wide scale.”
As far as his future dreams for the bot, Pavlov is not interested in monetizing it but is determined to have it embedded in LSE students’ day-to-day lives. This is after he reaches his goal of 600 active users by the end of Lent Term, of course.
“Ultimately, because I’m a postgraduate student here, I’m not going to stay here long, so I would like this to live on after I graduate,” he said.
