LongHorn Guide

Your AI-powered campus companion and navigation app with an autonomous robotic UT tour guide

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Inspiration

Starting college is exciting — but it can also feel overwhelming. New students face a maze of buildings, resources, and opportunities. Too often, freshmen struggle to find their way, miss out on valuable resources, and hesitate to ask for help. They need a reliable, judgment-free guide to campus life.

What it does

We built an intelligent, multilingual campus assistant that meets students wherever they are — on their phones, through chat, or even with a physical robot escort.

Voice-First Agent Call anytime for instant answers via our ElevenLabs mobile agent through Twilio — available in multiple languages

Smart Chat Widget Ask questions naturally with our Gemini-powered assistant that knows everything about campus

Productivity Tools Check schedules, send emails, and manage tasks with real-time workflows powered by n8n

Robot Escort Our autonomous advisor physically guides you to campus locations and assists with access

How we built it

Frontend & Mobile React Native + Expo for cross-platform mobile app + CSS for responsive UI design AI & Voice Gemini for intelligent chat responses + ElevenLabs for multilingual voice agent + Twilio for phone number integration Automation n8n for workflow automation Hardware Arduino for sensor control + C++ for robot programming + Raspberry Pi for AI agent integration

Challenges we ran into

Debugging Arduino code, voice agent setup within Raspberry Pi, building the robot advisor itself because of the complex wiring.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Proud to have completed the project on time, proud of the teamwork and collaboration.

What we learned

learned working with Raspberry Pi and React Native for the first time ever.

What's next for LongHorn Advisor Project

From Hackathon to Campus-Wide Solution

LongHorn Guide started as a weekend project, but we're thinking bigger. Our next steps include:

Expanding to a web-based platform accessible from any device

Optimizing the mobile experience for seamless on-the-go access

Partnering with UT Austin to integrate official campus data and services

Scaling the robot fleet for high-traffic areas like the PCL and Student Union

Building a community feedback loop to continuously improve features

Our vision: Every student, from day one, feels confident navigating campus.

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