R'Pool

landing page
user dashboard
brainstorming the UI

Inspiration

As students on campus, many of us find it costly and inconvenient to attend events off-campus. For instance, taking an Uber to the nearest airport costs around $50, and a trip to downtown Los Angeles for a weekend outing can exceed $100.

In our intro presentation, we emphasized that software is only worth developing if it makes a real impact, improving efficiency and making life easier.

With this in mind, we aimed high and built what we, as UCR students, truly needed—a carpool app designed for students like us.

What it does

Users can create an account on our website to join or organize carpool groups in advance, saving time waiting for a ride, cutting down on gas or Uber expenses, and avoiding the loneliness of traveling alone. You don't need to be friends with the person you carpool with—it's a great way to meet other UCR students. For safety, all users are required to sign up using their verified UCR Gmail. Additionally, a profile picture and full name are mandatory to complete your account.

To organize a carpool, post a listing with details about your destination and the date and time of the carpool.

To join a carpool, send a request to the organizer with an optional message. The organizer can then choose to accept or decline your request.

Users can also discover popular events and find carpools to those events on the /explore page.

How we built it

We built this project using Next.js, Tailwind, and ShadCN:

Next.js served as the framework for the website, providing a robust and efficient foundation.
Tailwind CSS was used for styling, enabling us to create a clean and responsive design.
ShadCN helped simplify and standardize components across the website, ensuring a cohesive user experience.

Challenges we ran into

We faced challenges setting up Google OAuth and implementing full login functionality within the given timeframe. As a workaround, we used a demo user for the login process during the presentation.
We also attempted to add a looped video background behind one of our components but ultimately decided against it due to the time it took to implement correctly.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

A fully functional user dashboard demo
A visually appealing user interface (UI)
Developing a project that provides direct benefits to students like us

What we learned

Gained an understanding of using Next.js routes to implement backend logic for seamless functionality.
Mastered the use of ShadCN to maintain consistent and reusable components across the website.
Most of all... We learned the power of teamwork and friendship. Maybe the hackathon is the friends we made along the way!

What's next for R'Pool

Expand the platform beyond UCR to other college campuses, and eventually to a broader audience beyond college campuses.
Develop a fully functional platform that goes beyond the current demo.
Create a mobile app to provide more robust platform support and accessibility.