BrainCraze

Inspiration

Often times, many college students including ourselves feel like we can't really express ourselves fully nor do we see all aspects of ourselves on campus which can lead to students feeling discouraged, isolated or even lonely. We each had experiences on campus, that made us feel that sort of way, especially since 3/4 of our team are Black women, one of the most marginalized groups on this campus.

We wanted to make a safe space for students to meet with others, which was where BrainCraze was born.

What it does

BrainCraze has tons of features including

• Location services to see if any users are near by
• Student ID verification using a custom Ollama model based on a Vultr server that is 100% verified by an Admin.
• Encouragement from the AI bot named Ozzie, our opossum mascot who is powered by ZenQuotesAPI and Gemini. ## How we built it We first began working on the location services, then worked on the customized ID verification using llama-llave3, an Ollama model known for it's powerful computer vision capabilities. This process (while it only takes in UMD identification cards) takes a student ID card, first using our ID tool to see if it's a valid ID before being moved to our ID verification pile, where one of us admins will manually review the image.

We also used Claude and Figma to build a powerful mockup that helped bring our product to live, later linking them to our website and mobile application. Our technical stack consisted primarily of React-Native, Typescript and JavaScript to maintain cross-device functionality.

We also had processes related to the login/signup, and location services.

Challenges we ran into

• Server Set Up: We originally planned to have this be wifi based but ultimately decided to have this run off a member's laptop, since their laptop was able to run this.
• UI: Many times the mockups were not as detailed as we liked, so we spent hours perfecting them.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• ID Verification: Users are able to verify their students using a local LLM called Ollama that keeps their data within the virtual Vultr server only.
• UI: Our UI after hours of working is very pleasing to the eye :)

What we learned

• Allowing the UI to be added even without it being fleshed. We could've tested a lot more if we simply worked on the UI with the codebase rather than waiting for absolute perfection.
• Scope Creep: We realized this was a bit too intense for everyone and decided that we could expand even further in the near future. ## What's next for BrainCraze

Built With

• expo.io
• gemini
• javascript
• node.js
• ollama
• react-native
• react-test
• sql
• supabase
• typescript
• vultr