RSO GO

Event creation form
Event details on a flipped card
One RSO screen
About tab
Home screen

Inspiration

As a group with a RSO (Registered Student Organization) board member and students who are active within RSOs, we found that board members often had to go out of their way to use different technologies to communicate events or make announcements to the general body. Many times RSOs would have to send multiple emails, and hope that people can spot last minute announcements or changes. We thought a centralized, streamlined app would make the whole experience more pleasant for both organizers and students.

What it does

RSO GO allows the board to publish either events or announcements in a social media like feed. Students can subscribe to RSOs they are part of, and see what's happening chronologically. The home page consists of a 7 day feed of each of their subscribed RSOs events to let users get a quick glance at the upcoming week. Users can look further ahead or see more details by navigating to their RSOs exclusive page. Posting an event is as simple as filling out a short form of required details, and attaching a image to be displayed to users.

How we built it

We started off by sketching out our ideas and writing down any key features we could think of. We picked those that felt essential to the heart of the project, then delegated tasks to each person. We used a MERN stack to develop the app, and used GitHub for source control. Every 30 minutes to an hour we would check in on each member's progress and delegate new tasks.

Challenges we ran into

We spend a large amount of time learning how to upload image files to the backend. As we progressed, we got better at solving problems and programming alongside each other without causing conflicts through frequent checks. Using Bootstrap proved to hurt more than it had helped, however it let us create useful reusable components.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We utilized a CSS card flipping animation that allowed us to fit more information within the same space, while keeping the app visually appealing and fitting the theming of the app. Sticking it through despite it being a difficult and long process - seeing people drop around us at different times throughout the night. Making a custom sidebar using no external frameworks besides React.

What we learned

We learned how to "route" between different screens. We used Postman for the first time. We discovered how to navigate components through use states. We learned to store images in a buffer in MongoDB backend.

What's next for RSO GO

We were thinking of adding a RSO finder that recommended organizations to you based on ones you are already part of. We also wanted to add the ability for RSOs to post forms, such as registration for students to fill out. Push notifications were also an idea we wanted to implement.