Student-Developed App Lets Aggies Meet, Eat At Sbisa

The days of a lonely lunch between classes are no more, thanks to the Aggie-built app, myTavata.

Tavata means “meet” in Finnish, and myTavata gives students the ability to do just that — meet. The app was designed to help students at Sbisa Dining Hall find other diners who are willing to sit together while enjoying their meal. It has been live in the Apple App Store since October 2017 and hit the Android Play Store this month, just in time for the fall semester.

Creator Allison Kornher ’19 was inspired to design myTavata after seeing another Aggie in Sbisa with a sign on her table that said, “Feel free to join me.”

“I found out she had been doing this for almost a year and no one had joined her yet. I was so surprised by that... After chatting with her, I stayed in Sbisa and created a website where students could post what table they were sitting at and invite other people to join,” the management information systems major said.

The app's design makes it easy to meet new Aggies. Once inside the app, the user has the option of sharing or joining a table, and they can designate which one they are at by using a map of the dining hall. The myTavata app currently only serves students at Sbisa, but Kornher said she would like to expand the app to other locations eventually.

“I have spent quite a bit of my own money to make myTavata possible and sustaining it in the long term, especially if I scale it, would be quite expensive…” Kornher said. “I am concerned that the app will become a full-time job for me, but it is worth it if I can make a difference in the lives of other students.”

Kornher said the app is free to use and she intends to keep it that way. You might see more of her entrepreneurial ventures in the future, but they won’t be confined to apps on your phone.

“I actually do not and never did intend to go into app development,” Kornher said. “I learned to develop apps because I felt like myTavata could make a difference in the lives of students and I knew it was something that I could actually do. App development is not within the scope of my major but is a skill that will definitely serve me well in the future.”

The myTavata app is available in the App Store and Play Store. 

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