The computer science and math major won a cash award after submitting the best idea to the tech firm running the competition.
In late December, Mishra saw a blurb on Handshake, Bowdoin's student job database, inviting college seniors to participate in a winter hackathon.
With graduation approaching, she had been keeping her eyes open for interesting opportunities, and the competition appealed to her creative side. “I love building things and it felt like a great opportunity to push myself and see what I could come up with in a limited amount of time,” she said.
The hackathon, run by Klaviyo, a marketing-tech company based in Boston, was promising a $10,000 prize to the student who came up with the best solution to a real-world problem, improved a digital experience, or built something new using Klaviyo's software.
Over three days in January, Mishra designed and coded an application she called StaySignals, for high-touch boutique hotels. “It provides a super specialized guest experience,” she said.
For instance, when a guest approaches a hotel's front desk, an employee can use StaySignals to bring up the guest's profile and immediately see that she likes firm pillows, a cool room, and jogging, and that she has a gluten intolerance.
“The staff can instantly personalize their questions, making her stay more pleasant and more tailored,” Mishra explained. “The staff can give her nearby running paths and a small bottle of water to take with her, which is super thoughtful, also gluten-free dinner options, or a pre-cooled face mask or cooling eye drops.”
Mishra said the idea for StaySignals came from noticing that boutique hotels and small hospitality businesses often have guest information scattered across a bunch of different systems, like booking engines, concierge notes, and marketing platforms.
After Bowdoin, Mishra hopes to find a software engineering job with a company doing “net good” in the world, and where she can use her liberal arts background as well as technical skills.
