SafeU

Inspiration

The idea for SafeU hit me after realizing how scattered all the safety resources are for students. There wasn’t one place where you could get all the info you need in a pinch, so I decided to create something that could bring everything together. The goal was to make an app that’s not only helpful but also easy for anyone to use, whether you’re checking the weather, reporting an incident, or just looking for a quiet place to study.

What it does

SafeU is a project I built to help students stay safe and connected on campus. It’s got everything from real-time weather updates and an SOS button for emergencies, to a way to report incidents, catch up on university news, and even find quiet spots around campus to chill or study.

How we built it

SafeU was built using the MERN stack:

MongoDB to store data like user reports and tagged quiet places.
Express.js for the backend, handling all the API requests.
React for the frontend, making the app interactive and responsive.
Node.js to tie everything together on the server side.
Custom User Authentication while hashing sensitive information using bCrypt

I also used Axios for making API calls, Leaflet for the interactive maps, and Tailwind CSS to style the app.

Challenges I ran into

-Deployment Woes: The biggest hurdle was deployment. I’d never deployed a full-stack project before, and getting everything up and running took me about six hours. It was frustrating at times, but finally seeing it live was worth it. -CORS Issues: Getting the frontend and backend to communicate properly, especially during deployment, meant dealing with some CORS issues. User Interface: Finding the right balance between functionality and simplicity was a challenge, but I’m really happy with how the UI turned out.