Undergraduate entrepreneurs develop tech solutions to common problems

Apps developed by Tufts students are innovative solutions tailored for college life, including reducing the hassles of finding a sublet, helping locate the most affordable java fix, and alerting students to free food left over from campus events. Photo illustration: Momo Shinzawa
Tufts students are inventing apps and other digital tools to solve problems and answer questions they encounter at college, like how to find an apartment or a cheaper coffee. Here are four recent arrivals.
Finding the Best Dunkin’ Deal
How far would you go to find the cheapest latte at Dunkin’? Jack Burton, E26, has made it easy to compare prices with DunkinScout, a free web platform that identifies the store with the lowest price for an item within any given area.
Burton’s creation sparked a media buzz when it debuted this past fall, though he was unfazed by the hoopla. “I just wanted to put the power in the hands of the people,” he told the Boston Globe.
The project began with a hunch. About to leave for Logan Airport, Burton mused that his preferred java fix (a medium iced coffee), was probably going to cost him more at the airport than at the Dunkin’ on the edge of campus. “But I wondered by how much,” he said. “So I looked on the Dunkin’ app, and I thought: Wow. it's a couple of dollars more at Logan.”
A computer engineering major, Burton saw a coding opportunity. While the official Dunkin’ app shows the price of items at specific locations, “you had to manually switch around to different stores,” if you wanted to compare prices, he said. “That seemed cumbersome.”
Using Python, a versatile programming language, Burton accessed the publicly available menu and pricing data from the Dunkin' mobile app to build a searchable platform that is automatically and routinely updated.
Budget-conscious Dunkin’ fans can use the online tool by downloading Python or they can use a more visual website application, which features a map on which a user can drop a pin on a location, then indicate the search radius and menu item of choice. DunkinScout will return the closest, lowest priced item.
A quick test run does reveal price differences. Within a half-mile radius of Cambridge’s Porter Square, for instance, an iced cappuccino costs $3.99. Around Kendall Square, the lowest price for the same drink is $4.19. Near Harvard Square, though, that order will set you back at least $4.49. (Dunkin’ prices for the same item can be different because independent franchisees are at liberty to set their own prices.)
So far, Burton says the app has attracted about 10,000 views. He suspects that thrifty college students, especially those with a daily coffee habit, are among those who will use DunkinScout to stretch a dollar. “Saving even 50 cents a day can add up over a year,” he said. “If you have limited resources, it’s one more way you can be an informed consumer.”
“I learned just enough [design and coding] to convince other developers that what I wanted to do was possible.”
Sarah Jun, A25
Taking on Food Waste
Students on the Medford/Somerville campus can find free food left over from Tufts events by downloading the app Freebites, a mobile app that alerts students of free food opportunities on campus.
The app’s founder and lead product designer, Sarah Jun, A25, is an engineering psychology major who wanted to make it easier for students to find and share free food. Users can post a food, list dietary restrictions and potential allergens, share the location, and provide live status updates with a push notification.
As a first-gen, low-income student, Jun was troubled whenever she saw an event ending with spreads of pizza or sandwiches left untouched and no plan to distribute them. “I feel there should be no food waste,” she said. “It's just that simple.”
Jun taught herself the basics of design with Figma and coding with React Native, a mobile app development framework. “I learned just enough to convince other developers that what I wanted to do was possible,” she said. “Then my friends who were way better at coding than me said: ‘OK, this could actually work!’” Jun highlights that while she initiated the concept, Freebites would not exist without the dedication and collaboration of her talented team.
Freebites caught on quickly when it debuted this fall, with more than 1,000 downloads and more than 30 food postings from events, with hosts as varied as the Mexican Culture Club and the Tufts Career Center. Looking ahead, Jun and her team of more than a dozen student volunteers, including three designers, a project manager, and about 10 developers, are working to establish Freebites as a nonprofit organization and expand the app to other schools to help even more students.
The group won “Most Promising Undergraduate team” at the Ideas Competition, hosted by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center. It was a gratifying moment, recalled Jun. “When the judges were amazed and impressed with Freebites, we realized then there are other people who believe in us. That moment gave us the confidence to keep moving forward with our mission to ensure no food is wasted.”
Simplifying Subletting
Finding housing is such a common student concern that two different digital platforms were recently created to address it: Squibber.com and Subletr.
Launched this past September, Squibber was founded by Jonathan Manta, A27, a quantitative economics and entrepreneurship major. The idea sprang from his frustration last summer when he struggled to find a sublet. On one site, “I had to pay a fee to access the code to just email someone,” he said. “It didn’t feel secure and safe.”
Launched in 2023, Subletr was founded by Winston Hsiao, A25, a computer science major who was close to the end of his sophomore year when his off-campus house for the following year was destroyed by fire. “I had a poor experience using existing platforms to sublet,” he said. “I made Subletr to give students the data they need to make better informed housing decisions.”
Both websites focus on sublets, rather than the full rental market.
Squibber offers a search function that allows users to filter for specific attributes and furnishing type, direct student-to-student messaging, pets, utilities, term length, and university proximity. Since its launch, it has attracted some 1,200 active users, including students from Tufts, Harvard, and Georgia Tech, Manta said.
More encouragement comes from the Derby Entrepreneurship Center as well, which awarded him a $2,000 grant from the Tufts Entrepreneurship & Innovation Fund this past fall. It adds momentum to his plans for ramping up growth. He is actively fundraising over the next few months and ramping up by adding student volunteers: a marketing manager and a software engineer.
Launched in 2023, Subletr was founded by Winston Hsiao, A25, a computer science major who was close to the end of his sophomore year when his off-campus house for the following year was destroyed by fire. “I had a poor experience using existing platforms to sublet,” he said. “I made Subletr to give students the data they need to make better informed housing decisions.”
“There are over 170,000 students in the Boston area, and an estimated 70,000 actively looking to sublet their rooms,” he said, “and I am excited to help my fellow college classmates and friends sublet their rooms!"
Aiming to save students time and money, Subletr allows users to quickly search for housing near dozens of U.S. universities with filters for semester, year, price, and more. Hsiao and his team are ramping up by releasing new features and investing in marketing, including offering early users free access to supply-and-demand data, which can help them price their rooms competitively.
This past fall, Subletr was awarded a $2,000 grant from the Tufts Entrepreneurship & Innovation Fund through the Derby Entrepreneurship Center. The previous fall, in 2023, it made a particularly strong impression on alumni judges who recalled their own housing challenges as students. “It was a problem when they were in college, and that was 10 years ago,” said Hsiao. “Until Subletr, they said, it hadn’t been fixed.”