The Catalyst App presents itself as a dating and social connection platform—but beneath the surface, it’s a behavioral intervention grounded in research on the modern isolation crisis. It is a platform designed not only to connect people, but to repair the psychological, social, and infrastructural systems that have made deep connections so difficult in the first place.

Most apps in this space optimize for volume: more swipes, more matches, more time on the screen. They reduce identity to photos and shallow prompts, and reduce connection to fleeting interactions, because those metrics are easy to track. The Catalyst App makes a different bet: that the quality of relationships—and the psychological readiness to form them—matters more than quantity. It re-engineers the user experience to reward emotional development, narrative self-awareness, and shared intentionality.

A Counterproposal to Current Dating Platforms

My research identifies dating apps as both a symptom and a driver of modern social disconnection. In their early forms, dating platforms aimed to narrow the gap between potential and practical connection—using structured surveys and personality matching to surface real compatibility. But modern swipe-based apps have largely abandoned that goal in favor of attention economy incentives: maximizing interaction rather than relational success.

These platforms often:

• Measure success by match count, not relational outcomes.

• Prioritize frictionless access over thoughtful pacing.

• Rely on photos and lists instead of story and emotional self-disclosure.

By contrast, The Catalyst App focuses on the emotional architecture that sustains real relationships: attachment style, motivational drives, communication patterns, values, and resilience under stress. It replaces instant access with earned access—users unlock layers of one another’s identity through meaningful interaction, mirrored in a progressive RPG-style system.

Why a University Is the Ideal Testbed

Universities are not just collaborators—they are ecosystems. With built-in third spaces (dining halls, gyms, libraries, markets, green spaces) and structured social groups (clubs, classes, student orgs), they offer a natural environment to deploy and study the app in action. Unlike public rollouts that require fragmented partnerships across businesses and cities, a university can offer:

• A closed system with shared infrastructure.

• A diverse but age-bounded population for testing social, romantic, and identity-building outcomes.

• A single point of oversight for iterative feedback, ethics, and research support.

If successful, this pilot could scale outward to other institutions and eventually into broader public systems, offering a viable alternative to mainstream platforms.

Founder Role and Collaborative Vision

As a generalist, I bring interdisciplinary synthesis, low-code prototyping, and systems design. I’ve mapped the research, modeled the structure, and built early functional frameworks using tools like Excel, Zapier, and Power Automate. But I’m not the final builder. I’m looking to partner across:

• Computer Science / Game Dev – for platform architecture and interaction logic.

• Design / UX – for emotional pacing, accessibility, and user flow.

• Psychology / Behavioral Science – for development, validation, and safety.

• Business / Entrepreneurship – for mission-aligned monetization and real-world launch strategy.

I bring cohesion, narrative clarity, and structural insight. The right collaborators bring depth, speed, and scale.

Why Now

We are in a moment where connection tools are abundant, but connective experiences are rare. The tools built to solve loneliness often deepen it. This project aims to demonstrate that with the right structure, design, and intent, we can build systems that don’t just connect people, but grow them.

With institutional backing, The Catalyst App can be more than a product. It can be a model for what socially-responsible tech—rooted in interdisciplinary research—can look like.

The Catalyst App: A Social/Dating Platform Engineered to Reverse the Isolation Epidemic

The Compass Program and The Hearthwatch Platform

Compss and Hearthwatch are two integrated phases of a developmental platform designed to restore autonomy, community trust, and civic preparedness in children and early adolescents. Built as both a digital support system and a real-world behavioral scaffold, this ecosystem addresses one of the most under-discussed contributors to social isolation and psychological fragility: the overrestriction of childhood independence.

In many modern communities, children are less likely than ever to explore their neighborhoods, interact across age groups, or develop civic familiarity. What were once daily learning environments—parks, transit, town squares—have become spaces from which children are either excluded or surveilled. Compass + Hearthwatch reimagines these spaces not as threats, but as training grounds for confidence, self-regulation, and participation.

System Design

• Hearthwatch (Ages 5–10): A smartband-based check-in system that allows children to safely navigate local “hearthpoints” such as libraries, cafes, parks, and community centers. Parents receive time-stamped, low-surveillance updates and can respond to simple mood signals from the child (green/yellow/red). The system is designed to build trust, not track behavior, and to scaffold early autonomy without inducing overexposure.

• Compass (Ages 10–13): A mobile and wearable app extension that expands the system to include light navigation, public transit access, civic missions (e.g., disaster drills, local clean-ups), team-based quests, and financial literacy tools like smart allowances and approved spending. Older participants can take on mentoring roles, fostering inter-age connection and civic identity.

Developmental Framework

The platform supports children across key developmental pillars:

• Esteem through Practice: Confidence is earned through structured engagement with real environments—not praise for compliance.

• Belonging through Participation: Social bonds are formed by contribution to shared goals, not performative comparison.

• Freedom through Scaffolding: Risk is introduced gradually and meaningfully, supported by gentle tools, not removed entirely.

This approach is designed to align with child development research on autonomy, emotional regulation, and peer-socialization, and can be embedded within broader community health and education goals.