Live campus and local event map

Inspiration

Campus life is wild. It moves quickly. It is very annoying when you are trying to know what is going on now. Things like surprise events, free food, study sessions and discounts for students get lost in a bunch of Instagram stories or group chats. By the time you see them the event is already finished. That is why we created Pulse. We wanted to fix this problem by turning all the things that are happening around campus into a map that you can see.

What it does

Pulse is a map that shows what is happening around you now. It is like a board where students and people who live around campus can pin up notes about things that are happening:

• Map: You can drop a pin on the map. Choose what kind of thing it is, like food or a study session.

• Timer: Each pin will go away after 2 hours so you do not have to see stuff.

• How to use: You can add a pin in two clicks you do not have to fill out a long form.

How we built it

• Frontend: We used Next.js and Tailwind CSS to make it look good and work well on your phone.

• Map: We used Leaflet and Mapbox to make the map work and to group pins

• Backend: We used Node.js and Supabase to make it all work together and to update the map in time.

• Cleanup: We set up a system to automatically remove pins after 2 hours.

Challenges we faced

• Real-time updates: We had to make sure that pins disappeared from all devices at the time, which was difficult.

• Map performance: We had to make sure the map did not get slow or jerky when there were a lot of pins on it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• We were able to update the map in time so you can see what is happening now.

• We made a version of the app that looks and feels like a real app, not just something we threw together.

What we learned

• We learned how to work with maps and locations in a database.

• We learned how to make the app run smoothly even when there is a lot going on.

What's next, for Pulse

• Upvotes: We want to add a way for people to vote on whether an event's real or not so we can get rid of fake events.

• Events: We want to let official student groups and businesses add events to the map so you can trust that they are real.

Built With

• nextjs
• reactnative