Campus Smart Bike

Inspiration

The vision for Campus Smart Bike was sparked by the "middle-mile" struggle common on sprawling university campuses. I observed students rushing between distant lecture halls, often arriving late due to unreliable shuttle schedules or the sheer exhaustion of walking across campus. I realized that while bikes existed, the management of those bikes was offline and inefficient. I was inspired to build a digital bridge—a software ecosystem that makes campus transit as seamless and accessible as a smartphone app.

What it does

Campus Smart Bike is a comprehensive web-based management platform that transforms traditional cycling into a smart utility. The application allows students to:

Authenticate Securely: Users can create accounts or sign in via Google to ensure a verified student user base.

Locate & Rent: A real-time dashboard shows bike availability across various campus "stations" like the Library or Faculty blocks.

Track Rides: During a journey, the system provides live telemetry, showing the route taken, distance traveled, and real-time cost accumulation.

Integrated Payments: Once a ride ends, students can pay immediately using E-wallets (Touch 'n Go, GrabPay), Online Banking, or Credit Cards.

Safety Sharing: A unique "Share My Ride" feature generates a live tracking link that students can send to friends for added security during night commutes.

How we built it

We focused on creating a high-performance, type-safe web application using the T3 Stack (Next.js, TypeScript, and Prisma). The Backend Logic: We developed a custom pricing engine that calculates costs based on the duration and distance of the ride. The mathematical model for the total fee C=Fbase+(r x t) while Fbase is the base fare, r is the rate per minute, and t is the total time elapsed. Live Geospatial Data: We integrated mapping APIs to handle real-time coordinate pings, allowing the "Live Tracking" view to update the user's position on the campus map dynamically. Database Design: A relational database manages the complex states of the bike fleet, ensuring that once a bike is rented, its status immediately switches to "In-Use" across the entire network.

Challenges we ran into

Building a real-time transit system purely in software presented unique hurdles: State Synchronization: Ensuring the timer and cost counter remained accurate even if a user refreshed their browser mid-ride required robust session persistence. Payment Flow UX: Designing a multi-step payment redirection that felt seamless while handling sensitive transaction data was a significant UI/UX challenge. Simulated Real-time Pings: Since the hardware is represented via software, we had to build logic that accurately simulates GPS movements to test the live-tracking and geofencing features.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are particularly proud of the Loyalty and Rewards system. By gamifying sustainable transit, students earn "Loyalty Points" for every kilometer they pedal, which can be redeemed for ride discounts. We also successfully implemented a Receipt Generation system, allowing students to view, download, or email detailed PDF breakdowns of their travel history for easy budgeting.

What we learned

This project was an intensive lesson in Full-Stack Development and User Experience (UX). We learned that for a transit solution to be adopted, it must be frictionless—the time from opening the app to starting the ride must be as short as possible. Technically, we gained deep experience in handling asynchronous payment webhooks, managing complex relational data, and deploying a responsive web application that performs reliably on both desktop and mobile browsers.

What's next for Campus Smart Bike

Moving forward, Campus Smart Bike aims to transition from a software-based management system to a fully integrated hardware ecosystem. Our primary goal is to incorporate physical IoT smart locks and GPS modules that communicate directly with our cloud backend, replacing digital simulations with real-world automation. We also plan to implement AI-driven predictive analytics to anticipate high-demand periods across campus, ensuring bikes are always available where they are needed most. By expanding our loyalty rewards and integrating with broader university transit systems, we hope to make sustainable, "frictionless" mobility a standard part of student life.