Meet Saifur Rahman Mehedi, a senior majoring in Computer Science and creator of Caminon, an internal community platform designed to connect students and professionals.
What started off as a research project for CSE 487 with Professor Praveen Tripathi quickly became something much more ambitious. Taking his classroom knowledge and research experience with Professor Tripathi, Saifur began development of Camnion, a digital platform with the goal of building internal communities throughout schools and companies through interactive features such as posting questions, sharing experiences, and providing insights. Academically, students could use the platform to find study partners over shared courses or give advice. Professionally, employees could seek mentorship and explore professional development opportunities.
Recognizing the potential of Camnion, Saifur decided to continue research and development even with the conclusion of his research course. The development process led to nearly a whole year of coding, testing, and troubleshooting. Days were spent working bugs and seeking feedback from his peers on various versions and updates. Working on the application helped Saifur push himself beyond coding assignments, to seek help from professors and peers when needed, and tapped into the courses he had previously taken throughout the process.
Saifur’s perseverance in his pursuits of Camnion allowed him to release his program through the app store with a successful launch. Within the first 15 days over 100 users from 10 different universities had used the application. While Camnion originally was developed with a focus on connecting students, it expanded to include those in professional roles. Saifur continues to refine Camnion by fixing bugs and issues as they arrise, and hopes to integrate new features in the future such as a campus market.
Making Camnion was just the beginning for Saifur. He plans on getting real-world experience in the industry before he considers developing more platforms in the future, with one of his ideas being a doctor’s appointment and review system.
From the start of Camnion through undergradaute research to launching a fully functional app, Saifur’s experience captures patience, resilience, and passion for building communities through platforms. Saifur’s journey of developing Camnion reflects his entrepreneurial spirit and drive as an innovator to create applications connecting people and strengthening communities. We are eager to see what else Saifur develops in the future!
Below are excerpts of the interview with Saifur and Janice, CEAS Student Assistant.
The Interview
Janice: What led you to your current major?
Saifur: I wanted to reach many people through my work, whether by creating new products or contributing to innovative projects in the industry, and Computer Science just felt right.
What is a fun fact about yourself?
I started playing tennis over the summer and I’ve found myself enjoying it a lot. Nowadays it is harder to find the time to, but I try to play once a week with my friends.
How did you get the initial idea or what motivated you to develop Camnion?
I saw a lot of people on campus who looked for people to study the same subject with, but a lot of them were not extroverted enough to speak to their classmates. I’ve always wanted to have a presence in the app store, but my main motivation was to create a space for students to reach out to each other for academics. Initially, students were the main focus, but I wanted to create a platform that would reach more people and make it accessible to different groups. Thus, I decided to include a feature for employees, where they can look for mentors in a more professional aspect. Now, any user can post questions and reach out to others via a post.
What was the process like developing Camnion (i.e. how long did it take?) What kind of hardships did you face?
Developing Camnion took almost one year. There were times where there were many different bugs which needed to be fixed. Sometimes, I would spend a week working on a bug. Sometimes I would give up, but the next day I would tell myself to try one more time, and it ended up working. I would even reach out to one of my friends for suggestions or advice. There would be features such as messaging or uploading photos that I expected to be hard, but I would finish in less than a week and parts where I felt would be easy took longer than a week, so you really don’t know what to expect sometimes, but I am constantly asking my friends for feedback, sending them multiple versions before landing on the one that looked best.
Preview of Camnion application interface
Did you have any coursework that aided your research when it came to Camnion?
Camnion started off in CSE 487 with Professor Tripathi. After I completed the course, I wanted to complete Camnion and publish it as well. I would say CSE 487 was a good start for Camnion.
How did the launch of Camnion go?
The launch of Camion went well, with it having over 100 users from 10 different universities within 15 days.
In what ways do you plan on improving Camnion? Was there certain feedback you’d like to address in the future or more features you’d like to integrate?
Initially, there have been password or login issues encountered, where I immediately addressed it. So any time there is an issue I try to resolve it as soon as possible. In the future though, I’ve thought about integrating a campus market in the app, and of course making sure that the app can handle many users at the same time.
What are your future plans or goals? Did you want to continue to develop other platforms?
Developing Camnion was just the beginning. I currently want to gain experience from the real world for a few years first, but if the chance arises I would like to develop other platforms. Hopefully with my own team of people working on it together with me.
If you were to develop a platform in a few years like you said, have you thought about what it would look like?
I was considering a doctor’s appointment system or review system. Many people don’t have a reliable place to look at other people’s experiences with doctors, but this app would allow them to share their experiences, and communicate with a doctor. I’ve seen many doctors post medical advice online such as YouTube, so I would like to include this kind of feature, where only the doctor can post and share their work.
Are you involved with CEAS or planning to in any other ways?
During my first two years on campus I was really involved, I worked at Stony Brook’s Osher Lifelong Learning Community (OLLI) where I helped them maintain the website and wrote their monthly newsletters, I also worked at the Island Federal Arena at the ticket booth, and I also a mentor for Reading is Fun. I tried to have a wide range of involvement, but ever since I started Camnion, I’ve focused solely on that.
Were there any resources from CEAS or Stony Brook that you’ve found useful when it came to the development of Camnion?
Since I started Camnion in Professor Tripathi’s class, I’ve been reaching out to him mainly, but I’ve found that the courses I took along with the work that came with it has helped me develop a sense of patience when it came to finishing Camnion.
Do you have any advice for those who are also looking to develop their own platforms?
I would say start small, and develop a product that they themselves would want to use or something for their community. With a good purpose, they will be able to find the motivation to work on it.
What do you think was the most important part of your experiences from developing Camnion and how did you make the most of them?
Developing Camnion helped me grow beyond coding assignments—building a full product, keeping people in mind, taught me software engineering, project management, and critical thinking. It also showed me how to take feedback and turn it into real improvements. Most importantly, it gave me the confidence to turn ideas into impactful products.
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