Inspiration
Building SafeSteps was inspired by a need for everyone to move confidently, knowing personal safety and community support are never out of reach.
What it does:
SafeSteps provides the safest campus routes, shares live ETA with trusted contacts, displays real-time safe zones, and offers instant help access via a virtual chatbot powered by AI and on-campus assistance.
How We Built It?
- React for a responsive, dynamic frontend web experience.
- Tailwind CSS for clean, efficient, and scalable UI styling.
- Python and FastAPI to deliver robust backend services and serve real-time data.
- Gemini API and ElevenLabs for advanced conversational assistant functionality.
- Google Maps API to render interactive routes and overlays.
Challenges we ran into:
The hackathon pace meant rapid learning and iterating. First of all, finding the right and appropriate dataset was a challenge. We faced hurdles integrating live data streams and making the UI both adaptable and accessible for all users. Ensuring smooth communication between the chatbot, map layers, and notification services required extra debugging.
Accomplishments that we're proud of:
As a team, we are proud that we built a working demo of live ETA sharing and a safe zone overlay tool. We successfully prototyped advanced safety assistant features using popular AI APIs, all within the timeframe.
What we learned:
We learned how to combine modern web development (React, Tailwind, FastAPI) with conversational AI, accessibility best practices, and rapid prototyping. Teamwork and constant communication were crucial for balancing iteration with a thoughtful user experience.
What's next for SafeSteps:
Some next steps for SafeSteps are:
- Group-Walk, so friends could track each other's location.
- Weather alert, so the user can go to the nearest safe zone.
- Self-defense tips/training.
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