📱 About Proxo

Proxo is a web application designed to help college students make spontaneous social connections on campus. Whether you're looking to find a study partner, grab lunch with someone new, or join in on impromptu activities, Proxo makes it easy to create and respond to real-time hangout requests.

🚀 Inspiration

During college, we noticed that many students want to hang out or study with others but don’t always have a consistent friend group available... or feel awkward reaching out. Proxo was born from the idea that connecting should be as easy as saying “I’m free”. By letting students see who else is around and open to hang out, we make spontaneous connection feel natural and low-pressure.

🛠️ How We Built It

Proxo was built using:

React: for a clean and responsive frontend UI
Firebase Authentication: with .edu email verification to ensure user trust and safety
Cloud Firestore: to store user profiles, hangout requests, and real-time updates
Google Maps API: enabling location-based discovery using browser geolocation or manual entry

Key features include:

🔐 Verified .edu signups
🧭 Distance sorted requests showing nearby users and hangout requests
📝 Customizable profiles with name, school, major, and interests
✨ Ability to create or cancel personal hangout requests
🔍 Search and filter functionality for finding people by name or activity

💡 What We Learned

How to use Firebase’s full stack: Auth, Firestore, and hosting for seamless backend integration
Optimizing asynchronous UI updates for real-time data (e.g. updating the hangout list as new requests come in)
Handling Google Maps integrations, including geolocation fallback and edge cases in map rendering
Creating a clean, intuitive user experience for social connection without overwhelming users

🧱 Challenges We Faced

Ensuring location accuracy with both automatic and manual methods
Designing a UI that balances privacy and discoverability
Handling secure user authentication and error flows during sign-up/login
Managing state across components as requests and profiles updated in real time