Bridge

About the Project

Every student knows the pain: Canvas for grades, WhatsApp for group chats, Discord for projects, Outlook for announcements, and LinkedIn to maybe find that one person from your course. It’s scattered. It’s messy. It’s exhausting.

We’re Arjun and Rutika, second-year students at the University of Sydney, and we lived that mess every single day — until we decided to fix it.

🎯 What We Built

Bridge is an all-in-one platform designed to streamline communication, collaboration, and engagement within universities. Think of it as your campus super-app — one secure login that brings together:

🔁 Auto-created forums for every subject you’re enrolled in
🎯 Smart student search (like LinkedIn but uni-focused)
📅 A live event feed from all your societies and faculties
🤖 Bridge AI: a chatbot trained on your uni’s courses, units, and content
🛠 Tools like résumé builders, word counters, typing tests, and more
🎁 A reward system that turns helpful engagement into real-world perks

💡 What Inspired Us

The inspiration for Bridge came straight from our own frustrations as students. We realised no single platform was built for students, by students, with the full academic, social, and campus life experience in mind. It wasn’t just about chat — it was about making university feel connected again.

🛠 How We Built It

Frontend: React + Tailwind
Backend: Node.js with REST APIs
Canvas Integration: Canvas API for course sync & events
SSO: Shibboleth + SAML (mocked for MVP)
Database: Firebase for auth + Firestore for real-time content
Bridge AI: Custom-trained LLM with prompt chaining + in-context data

We also built a working MVP hosted at bridge-beta.vercel.app, complete with user onboarding, matchmaking filters, society/event modules, and the first version of Bridge AI.

📚 What We Learned

How to implement federated SSO using real-world university infrastructure (Shibboleth, SAML, SCIM).
How to connect to complex platforms like Canvas and structure real-time ETL pipelines.
How to scope big ideas into a tightly built MVP — without losing vision.
How students want clarity, speed, and relevance — not more complexity.

🚧 Challenges We Faced

Canvas integration was trickier than expected — rate limits, OAuth scopes, and parsing nested JSON were all battles.
Designing a UI that felt fresh but functional across both academics and societies took multiple iterations.
Creating a matchmaking algorithm that balances course enrolments and interests without overwhelming users.
Making Bridge AI genuinely helpful, not just another chatbot — it needed to understand university content and speak like a peer.