What happens when students with different backgrounds, skills and experiences come together around one meaningful problem? For the team behind TogetherWay, the answer has been a journey of ideas, experimentation, teamwork, technical challenges and personal growth.
Developed as part of TSI iDEAHUB, TogetherWay is designed to support international students and newcomers as they adapt to life in Latvia. The idea is simple but important: create one accessible platform where people can find practical guidance, trustworthy information and useful opportunities related to studying, employment, housing, wellbeing and everyday life.
Behind that idea is a diverse team whose experience shows exactly what student innovation can become when people are given the opportunity to build something real.
One project, different backgrounds
One of the strengths of TogetherWay is the diversity of the people developing it.
Edgars Sažins, a part-time Robotics student in his 5th semester, joined the project while balancing his studies with a day job. His experience reflects one of the realities many students face: finding enough time to contribute to an ambitious project while managing work, studies and personal responsibilities. For Edgars, the process has been an important lesson in time management, problem-solving, development and organising teamwork.
One of the most satisfying parts of the experience has been reaching those moments when the team finally finds a breakthrough.
Mert Pehlivan, who is currently in the second year of his studies, joined TogetherWay after the original project idea had already been developed. That meant his experience started from a different point: rather than creating the initial concept, he became part of the process of transforming that concept into a convincing and potentially valuable product.
For Mert, one of the biggest challenges has been demonstrating why users and organisations should choose TogetherWay when other alternatives already exist. Developing software is only part of the task; the team must also understand its competitive advantage and communicate that value clearly to universities, companies and potential partners.
Through iDEAHUB, Mert gained practical experience with project management, budgeting, implementation planning, collaboration and product presentation.
A particularly memorable moment came after the first interim report, when the TogetherWay website became publicly available. Seeing the first version functioning successfully made the project feel much more tangible.
For Mufazzalshokh Ulashev, a Master’s student in Software Engineering who has completed his first year, TogetherWay became an opportunity to take on a demanding technical challenge while contributing to something that could have a genuine impact. He joined the team with an open mind and a willingness to tackle something different.
Mufazzalshokh’s experience has involved connecting multiple technical components into one secure and reliable system. TogetherWay combines its user interface, authentication, cloud infrastructure, database and AI-assisted guidance.
And as the team discovered, having every individual component working does not automatically mean that the entire product works. Small configuration problems or identity mismatches could affect the full user journey. Instead of relying on assumptions, the team learned to test the system layer by layer, introduce structured logging, improve error handling and perform real authenticated tests.
The TogetherWay story also includes a team member at a very different stage of education.
Vladimirs Lencmanis, a 12th-grade student at Riga Ostvalds Secondary School, has taken on the challenge of helping lead the project. For Vladimirs, one of the most difficult parts was not necessarily choosing the technologies or implementing his own tasks. It was learning how to divide responsibilities across a team, create a clear plan, make sure everyone understood their role and eventually bring everyone’s contributions together into one functioning product.
That process also taught him something every project manager eventually discovers: integration takes time. Through that experience, Vladimirs says he has learned how to lead a team and how to plan and manage long-term projects more effectively. One of the most rewarding parts has been seeing other team members become genuinely engaged in the project and deliver strong results.
Why should students join TSI iDEAHUB?
The TogetherWay team has one clear message for students who are considering iDEAHUB:
You do not need to arrive with a perfect idea.
You do not need to know everything.
And you do not need to feel completely prepared.
What matters is bringing curiosity, responsibility and a willingness to learn.
iDEAHUB gives students the opportunity to experience what happens beyond the idea itself: researching a problem, validating assumptions, working with a team, managing responsibilities, building a solution, receiving feedback, presenting results and gradually moving closer to a real business environment.
Want to turn your idea into a real product? The iDEAHUB call is open until 28 October. Learn more and apply HERE
TSI iDEAHUB is not only a place to develop an idea. It is a place to discover what you are capable of doing with it!
The project “Transport and Telecommunication Institute (TSI) Innovation Grants for Students – iDEAHUB” is implemented with the financial support of the European Union under Project No. 1.1.1.7/1/25/A/004.
