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Hidden Gems is designed to answer a simple question:
“What is useful, welcoming, or interesting for me, right now?”

The service brings together local data sources, community input, and AI-assisted discovery to help users confidently explore university life, especially beyond the obvious or well-known options.

Hidden Gems focuses on four core dimensions:

• Spaces – study areas, quiet spaces, walks, and places to pause
• Societies – student groups and communities
• Events – university, society, and community events
• Wellbeing – support services and wellbeing resources

The experience starts simple and becomes more personalised over time through use.

Feedback from students consistently shows that:

• It can be hard to find spaces and activities beyond the obvious
• Many students feel uncertain or disconnected, particularly early on
• Useful information exists, but is spread across multiple systems

Hidden Gems explores whether a community-led, AI-supported discovery experience can:

• Increase students’ sense of belonging
• Improve engagement with spaces, societies, and support
• Make the campus and city easier to navigate with confidence

Hidden Gems is embedded directly into iLancaster, providing a seamless experience rather than a standalone tool.

At this Proof of Value stage:

• Students can explore and favourite content
• AI supports discovery and search refinement
• Recommendations are guided by preferences rather than tracking
• No continuous location or movement tracking is used

All development follows Lancaster University’s Responsible AI principles and governance processes.

Status: In scope for PoV

Students can:

• Explore Spaces, Societies, Events, and Wellbeing resources
• Set preferences during onboarding
• Use AI-powered search and filtering
• Save favourites across all dimensions
• View detailed pages for each item

At this stage:

• No behavioural or location tracking is used
• Recommendations are based on stated preferences and context provided by the user

Future phase, subject to PoV review

Planned enhancements include:

• A personalised home experience
• Notifications when relevant items appear
• Ability for societies and JCRs to contribute events
• Moderation workflows for contributed content
• “Because you liked this…” style recommendations

Future phase, subject to governance and opt-in

Potential features include:

• Optional GPS-based suggestions
• Time-aware recommendations
• Nearby space and event prompts
• Device-level cards and alerts

All location-based features would be strictly opt-in and reviewed through governance.