Comet — Academic Social Network

Concept design for a social layer within Perplexity’s Comet browser that turns everyday academic activity into a self-updating portfolio of verified work. Led creative direction and UI/UX for an inter-campus competition project that placed second overall.

Timeline
Nov 2025
Team
5 person team
Role
Product Manager
Comet by Perplexity — tablet UI with search and feature cards

Problem

Students spend billions of hours researching, analyzing, building, and learning, but most of that work disappears into browser tabs, assignments, and folders once it’s finished.

At the same time, students attend university largely to prepare for their careers, while employers struggle to understand what graduates can actually do.

There is a gap between what students do and what recruiters see.

  1. Students do the workResearch · Analyze · Build
  2. The work disappearsTabs close · Files buried
  3. The gap
  4. Reduced to credentialsGrades · Titles
  5. Employers see an incomplete pictureHard to evaluate

Solution

Instead of asking students to manually build another portfolio, we saw an opportunity in something they already use every day: the browser.

Comet sits directly where research and academic work happen. That makes it uniquely positioned to capture the process—not just the final claim.

From search, analysis and code to an auto-generated Proof Card

Proof Card System

Proof card for a housing price prediction project

Auto-captured “cards” showing the technical details of any research project you have done using the Comet browser

Customizable User Profile

Profile editor

Choose from an automated list which academic work to share to your public profile and gain traction

Comet network feed and a student profile with proof cards

AI-Driven Discovery

AI summary of learning themes and peer recommendations

Students, faculty, and employers connect via visible, verified work

Network Insights

Follow collaborators list

Stay in sync/follow your favorite builders, mentors, and scouts for updates