Civic Pulse

Little Steps towards Bigger Civic Impact

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Mandatory Submission details:

Project Repository Link: https://github.com/Jeevan10816/SJHacks_CivicPulse
Selected track/theme: Clean up your city
Names of all team members: Jeevan Shankar Balagam, Venkata Sai Sreelekha Gollu, Sravani Neelapala

Project Description:

Inspiration

In every corner of our cities, countless individuals silently struggle with access to basic hygiene, healthcare information, and civic dignity. A missing restroom. A lack of menstrual products. An uncollected trash bin. A simple unanswered health question. Behind every data point is a real human being facing health risks, discomfort, and social exclusion.

We were inspired by the belief that technology, when built with empathy, can restore dignity and hope at the most grassroots levels. We wanted to create a platform where every map click, every health alert, and every chatbot conversation meant someone’s life was just made a little safer, healthier, and kinder.

What it does

Civic Pulse is a smart civic engagement platform that empowers citizens by:

  • Locating nearby public restrooms, trash bins, and menstrual product access points on a live, real-time map
  • Delivering hygiene education microlearning through short, accessible content
  • Sending disease prevention alerts to raise awareness during public events or outbreaks
  • Offering a Health Assistant Chatbot to answer basic health and hygiene questions instantly
  • Providing a Volunteer Sign-Up Portal to connect community members with civic support programs

How we built it

  • Frontend: Developed a responsive web platform using React.js, styled with TailwindCSS for clean, calming UI.
  • Maps Integration: Embedded OpenStreetMap with custom markers and layers to locate facilities.
  • Education Page: Built a Hygiene Microlearning module with easy-to-read health posters and videos.
  • Health Chatbot: Designed a simple AI chatbot to answer common health queries like symptoms of flu or cold.
  • Volunteer Portal: Developed a sign-up and information page to recruit volunteers for local hygiene and support programs.
  • Focus on UX: Prioritized a soft, trust-inspiring color palette (shades of blue) to make the app approachable for all users.

We also used Bolt to build certain aspects of the project across all categories

Challenges we ran into

  • Balancing Scope and Simplicity: With so many impactful ideas, it was challenging to scope down and focus on a few core features without overwhelming users.
  • Integrating Real-Time Data: Ensuring reliable real-time facility mapping while keeping the interface fast and clean.
  • System Coordination: Making maps, alerts, chatbot, and volunteer systems work seamlessly in one unified experience under tight deadlines.
  • Some of the UI features were challenging to debug.
  • Integrating and deploying high-weight ML models into the tool without hurting the performance was website. Trying to resolve this was challenging.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Built a fully functional civic engagement platform from scratch within the hackathon timeline.
  • Created a health-centered AI chatbot that can immediately answer citizen health queries.
  • Designed an inclusive, soothing, user-centric experience focused on compassion, not just information.
  • Integrated real-time civic maps and volunteer programs into one unified platform.
  • Kept human dignity at the center of every design and technical decision, making technology serve humanity, not the other way around.

What we learned

  • Small interventions can have huge ripple effects. A restroom locator, a simple health alert — each can profoundly impact someone’s life.
  • Empathy must guide technology design. It’s not enough to solve a problem technically — we must solve it emotionally and humanely.
  • Accessible content matters. Simplifying health education for all literacy levels is critical for real community impact.
  • Cross-functional teamwork is essential. Merging mapping, frontend design, AI, and civic engagement in one platform taught us to collaborate tightly and creatively.

What's next for Civic Pulse

  • Expand the Maps Database: Collaborate with city governments and NGOs to populate and validate more public facility data.
  • Enhance the Health Bot: Train the AI assistant to handle a wider range of health topics and local services.
  • Mobile App Launch: Build a lightweight, offline-friendly mobile version to serve low-connectivity areas.
  • Incorporate more real-world data and directly connect to the data sources to update the maps.

Bonus Submissions

Pitch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFAdb9cmAg4
Pitch Slide Deck: (attached as images) and also available at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1KKzcXEOsLKH9R5gmTklchkg2EI7byhyr/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109138820638375457525&rtpof=true&sd=true
Live Project Link: https://guileless-chaja-14dcd3.netlify.app/

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