Helsinki Incubators Alumni Syllabuss: Bringing Peer-to-Peer Clarity to Study Planning

Every university student knows the feeling. You stare at a screen full of courses, trying to piece together a schedule, and the anticipation of a new semester turns into quiet apprehension. That shared experience is where the idea for Syllabuss was born.

, studying physics, and , pursuing computer science, are second-year Bachelor's students in the University of Helsinki's Science programme. They met online before classes started and became friends during orientation week. Looking back, Pradham reflects that this early bond helped them form a level of trust that makes working together feel natural. They soon welcomed other international students to the team, bringing diverse perspectives to a problem every student faces.

The core problem that Syllabuss aims to address revolves around the anxiety of academic planning. Picking the right path from all available courses can feel overwhelming. In Finland, students rely on the university system, Sisu, for this task. While it handles the administrative side, some students find it hard to follow. The Syllabuss team realized that the system focuses more on structural efficiency rather than the user experience, and most importantly, doesn’t include any space for peer-to-peer advice. This lack of guidance can have real consequences for students trying to navigate their degree requirements. "I've heard stories from my friends about not taking a mandatory course because they couldn't find it in their study plans," Michał notes, highlighting the stakes involved. "So there's still room for more advice to be given".

Syllabuss offers a simple, student-focused ‘companion’ to the official system. Finding inspiration in NUSMODS, a similar student-built initiative from Singapore, Syllabuss at its heart, enables peer-to-peer advising. It lets students view and find inspiration from the study plans of their peers. Right now, any valuable course advice often gets lost in Telegram chats. Syllabuss addresses this by creating a centralized discussion forum for course reviews. Looking ahead, the team hopes to add an AI advisor for personalized planning, but for now, they are focusing on building a shared, human experience.

To make the platform work seamlessly, the team engineered a practical solution. Students merely upload a PDF of their transcript. From there, Syllabuss automatically pulls and synchronizes the course data. They developed this approach while participating in the University of Helsinki’s , learning to translate their technical expertise into a functional business model.

Their efforts are now taking shape. Integralis, the student organization for international students at University of Helsinki’s Kumpula campus, recently supported the team with approximately 500 EUR in early funding. With this support, they are actively building their product. They intend to deploy an early pilot version over the summer months. This release will be available exclusively to incoming freshers within the Bachelor of Science programme, giving the team space to test their platform’s features. Pradham admits that the drive to keep pushing forward outside of their regular studies is fueled by their own daily experiences. It serves as a motivator to build a tool that will help students reduce academic stress for themselves and their peers.

If the platform resonates with the students, next steps will follow naturally. The team plans to gather user feedback and reach out for support from other academic programmes. Given that other prominent institutions like Aalto and Hanken also utilize Sisu, the impact potential of Syllabuss is significant across the country. But deep down, the team’s underlying motivation remains personal. They aim to improve a system they interact with daily, trading academic anxiety for clarity and connection.