Event Map

A platform that helps Clemson University students and visitors discover local and global events, with personalized recommendations and real-time updates, all in one place.

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Inspiration

Our inspiration for the Event Map Web Application came from the need to make campus events more accessible to the Clemson University community. With so many events happening across the campus, it can be hard to keep track of them all. We wanted to create a user-friendly platform where students and visitors can easily discover and explore events in their area.

What it does

The Event Map Web Application displays a map of events happening around Clemson University, making it easier for users to find out what’s going on near them. It uses Google Maps API to show event locations and provides detailed event information, such as time, description, and location. Additionally, we’ve integrated AWS Bedrock to offer personalized event suggestions based on the user’s input in the search bar.

How we built it

We used React for the frontend, Vite for fast development, and Tailwind CSS and Daisy UI for styling. For the backend, we used .NET MVC for the API, integrated with AWS RDS PostgreSQL for database management. To gather event data, we created a Python script using BeautifulSoup to scrape event information from Clemson’s official website. AWS Location Services helps convert building names into complete addresses, and the Gemini API summarizes event descriptions. The event suggestions are powered by AWS Bedrock for smart recommendations.

Challenges we ran into

  • Scraping data: Gathering reliable event data from Clemson’s website using BeautifulSoup required fine-tuning to ensure data was being scraped accurately and efficiently.
  • Configuring and setting up various AWS services for our application. While AWS provides a broad set of tools and services, setting up services like RDS PostgreSQL, Location Services, and Bedrock required a deeper understanding of AWS's management console, IAM roles, and networking configurations. In particular, setting up RDS PostgreSQL for our database and ensuring it was accessible to the backend had a steep learning curve due to the complexities of security groups, VPC settings, and credentials management.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

What we learned

  • Successfully integrated AWS Bedrock to offer personalized event suggestions, enhancing the user experience by providing relevant recommendations.
  • Created a seamless interactive map that visually displays events based on their location around campus, powered by Google Maps API.
  • Designed an easy-to-use platform with a modern, responsive interface using Tailwind CSS and Daisy UI, ensuring great usability for all users.

What's next for Event Map

Throughout this project, we learned how to integrate multiple AWS services, including RDS, Location Services, and Bedrock, into a full-stack web application. We also gained hands-on experience with scraping data from websites, and fine-tuning event suggestions using AI-powered services. Additionally, we improved our skills with React, .NET, and Google Maps API to build a polished and functional product.

Moving forward, we plan to:

  • Add more detailed user profiles, allowing users to save events and track their interests over time.
  • Expand the event data sources to include other local events outside of the university.
  • Improve the search functionality and integrate additional filtering options to help users find events by category, time, or popularity.
  • Enhance the event suggestion engine by fine-tuning the integration with AWS Bedrock, allowing for even more personalized recommendations.
  • Optimize the app for mobile use, ensuring users can access event details easily while on-the-go.
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