edubridge-lite

Text, link, or photo. Instant study packs, offline and free.

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Inspiration

In many schools and homes, connectivity is unreliable, data is expensive, and study time is scarce. Long articles and dense notes are hard to digest on low-end devices. We asked: what if a free, offline-first tool could turn any lesson into a small, study-ready pack - in under a minute - without paid AI or accounts? That became EduBridge Lite.

As a running example in science classes, students often meet the photosynthesis equation:

$$ 6\mathrm{CO_2} + 6\mathrm{H_2O} \rightarrow \mathrm{C_6H_{12}O_6} + 6\mathrm{O_2}. $$

EduBridge Lite turns the surrounding lesson into key points, an easy explanation, flashcards, and a quiz - even offline.

What it does

  • Input: paste text or a URL, or upload a photo (OCR to text).
  • Output (Lite Pack):
  1. Key Points (scored & deduped),
  2. Easy Language summary,
  3. Flashcards (cloze),
  4. Quiz (MCQ).
    • Works offline: installable PWA, local My Packs library (IndexedDB).
    • Listen & print: TTS controls (Play/Pause/Resume/Stop) and polished PDF export (Unicode font, atomic sections, QR back to the app).
    • Import from links: serverless extractor fetches clean article text (≤5000 chars) and title.
    • Privacy: no accounts, no analytics, no server DB. (Telegram bot: optional/deferred.)

How we built it

  • Frontend: React + Vite, minimal CSS, shipped as a PWA (service worker, manifest).
  • Heuristics (no paid LLM): sentence scoring (keywords + position + length) with Jaccard de-duplication for Key Points; simple rules for Easy Language; generators for flashcards and MCQ.
  • OCR: Tesseract.js in the browser with light pre-processing and progress updates.
  • TTS: Web Speech Synthesis API with reliable Stop/Pause/Resume wiring.
  • PDF: jsPDF + embedded Noto Sans (Unicode) for PL/EN; fixed line heights; 3-line clamped title; atomic sections (e.g., a whole Quiz moves to the next page); footer QR (qrcode).
  • Storage: IndexedDB for My Packs (save/load/delete, capped to 10).
  • Serverless: Vercel function /api/extract for URL into clean text + title (stateless).
  • Deployment: Vercel static build; icons/manifest for A2HS on iOS/Android/Desktop.

Challenges we ran into

  • PDF typography & layout: overlapping lines and broken sections - fixed with embedded Unicode fonts, deterministic line heights, and atomic pagination.
  • Safari TTS “Stop” reliability - solved with aggressive cancel() + state guards.
  • OCR variability on low-quality photos - mitigated with pre-processing and user feedback.
  • URL extraction against dynamic or paywalled sites - added fallbacks and clear errors.
  • PWA quirks on iOS (A2HS discoverability) - UI hints and correct meta.
  • Vercel routing/build footguns - corrected static build + output dir + PWA plugin config.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of

  • A fully offline study workflow (import to generate to TTS/PDF to save) with zero paid APIs.
  • Readable PDFs in Polish and English, with QR linking back to the live app.
  • Deterministic heuristics that produce useful Key Points without black-box models.
  • A clean, frictionless UI that works on low-end devices and poor networks.

What we learned

  • Designing for constraints (low bandwidth, older phones) changes product choices for the better.
  • Practical PWA patterns (service worker caching, iOS nuances) and on-device OCR/TTS.
  • Why simple, explainable heuristics can beat “quick LLM glue” for accessibility, cost, and reliability.

What’s next for edubridge-lite

  • More importers: TEX/DOCX.
  • Template packs by subject (e.g., Biology, History) for faster study.
  • Community contributions and translations.
  • Telegram integration (optional) with hardened security, rate limits, and tests.

Our Team

Kamil Piejko - Technical Lead (Frontend & Generator)

  • Contributions: web/src/App.jsx, heuristics in lib/generator.js, on-device OCR/lib/ocr.js, TTS/lib/tts.js, URL import (api/extract.js + lib/extract.js), local library (lib/store.js).
  • Highlights: Reliable Play/Pause/Resume/Stop, robust Key Points heuristics, UX polish and accessibility.

Mateusz Grabowski - Cloud & DevOps (Hosting & PWA)

  • Contributions: Vercel deploy & routing, serverless extractor, PWA manifest/icons & iOS meta, build pipeline hardening, Unicode PDF fonts delivery.
  • Highlights: Stable production build, offline-first behavior, safe env setup

Joanna Pich - Documentation

  • Contributions: README.md, DEVPOST.md, PITCH_REPORT.md, slides, demo script, QA checklist.
  • Highlights: Clear submission pack, concise slide copy, ≤5-minute demo idea.

Built With

  • css
  • html
  • indexeddb(local?mypacks?)
  • ios)
  • javascript
  • npm
  • react-18
  • service-worker
  • synthesisapi
  • tesseract.js
  • vercel(node.js-functions+static-hosting)
  • vite
  • vite-pwa/plugin
  • web-manifest
  • webspeech
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