Bucket Box

Make a Wish!

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Inspiration

Honestly, this idea started because my bucket list was just... sitting there. I'd add stuff to my phone's notes app like "learn to bake" or "find a cool spot to watch the stars," and then I'd completely forget about them. It felt like I was collecting dreams but never actually doing them. I got so frustrated and thought, "What if my phone could just tell me when I'm near a place where I could do one of these things?" That sparked Bucket Box. I wanted to build an app that would push me to stop dreaming and start doing.

What it does

So, Bucket Box is like a smart to-do list for your life goals. You throw in a goal, say "try real Italian pizza," and the app doesn't just save it. It figures out what you mean, and when you open the map, it pops up little purple stars on all the best pizza places near you. I also added a "Community Hub" because doing things is way more fun with people. You can post or join local events, like a beach cleanup or a group hike, so it’s not just about your list anymore. Oh, and there's a little AI chatbot I built in, who's always there to help you brainstorm new ideas when you're feeling stuck.

How we built it

The app itself is built with React Native and Expo, which was fun for making the UI look nice. The "brain" is a backend server I made with Node.js and TypeScript. To figure out what a goal like "find Dmart" actually means, I hooked it up to the Cohere AI. I had to teach it, through a bunch of trial-and-error prompts, to tell the difference between a specific store and a general idea like "go fishing." Then, based on what the AI decides, the backend searches for locations using free map data from Google Places.

Challenges we ran into

For what felt like forever, I was stuck on a "Network request failed" error, which was from my Windows Firewall, so I had to try some other networks to nail it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The first time I typed "Dmart" and a real location popped up on the map in my city, I knew that this was going to be one of my best projects till now. I'm also really proud of the AI part, teaching it to understand the intent behind a goal, not just the words, feels like a huge win as an AI and ML major. Building a whole community events feature, where people can post and see events from a central database, also feels like I built something helpful in real life.

What we learned

I learned that 90% of coding is just being too stubborn to quit, and that I'm actually a great tester, certified by Google Gemini. Honestly, the biggest lesson was just learning how to debug a problem when you have absolutely no idea what's wrong, and just testing one tiny thing at a time until you find the source.

What's next for Bucket Box

Right now, this is my working prototype, but the dream is to make it huge. The very next step is to make it ready for lots of people, so I plan on moving all the backend stuff over to Supabase to handle real user accounts and data at a big scale. I also really want to build in background notifications, so the app can send you an alert like, "Hey! You're walking right past that coffee shop you wanted to try!" It's all about closing that gap between dreaming and doing, and I'm so excited to keep building it.

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