SideWalk

Front Page
Brooklyn Events
Random Surprise Event

Inspiration

As NY residents, it is often that we find ourselves bored in our free time or running out of planned things to do. Sometimes you are unsure of what to do next! There is a bunch of things to do in NYC but it’s hard to find these events.

What it does

SideWalk is a Web App which helps users search for events nearby using smart Gemini search. It can locate and describe different events based on title, location, and event details, which is perfect for planning your weekend.

How we built it

Frontend: Vite for fast UI development, Leaflet for interactive map.
Backend: Gemini API for search and context, Sqlite, Express to bridge server to Frontend

Challenges we ran into

Biggest challenge is finding accurate and currently happening events in this city in the correct date, it was hard to debug what the AI generates.
Visualizing the back-end.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Quickly transforming a wire-frame into a working prototype.
Clean and fast UI, Interactions are fast and responsive.
Creating fall backs for Database that are still relevant to input.
Getting Gemini Flash Search to provide useful information.

What we learned

Gemini API different use cases and tools along with refining obtained data.
Handling Collaborative Projects in a time-limited environment and handling merge resolution properly.
Thinking through project structure and foreign interactions rather than straight to developing.

What's next for SideWalk

Finding Better search sources
Agentic database workflow that dynamically changes based on retrievals
Tailor suggested events or places based on historical database
Expense planning
Travel routes, public transit options (Bus and Train)
Incorporate React with Vite
Group events into plans and ability to create/discard events.
Be able to select cities outside of NYC
Filter types of events
Provide stats on neighborhoods

Built With

Submitted to

CTP Hacks 2026

Created by

Initiated organization of the storyline of the project on Google Slides and tested out Front-End.

Nathan Chin
I worked at the front-end, first time working in a hackathon! Prototyping and Creating the design with the team was a great experience.

Jason Wang
I worked on the back-end and created the initial SQLite database. I have prior experience using PostgreSQL but it was my first time using SQLite. It felt daunting at first, but I'm glad to have gotten to improve my database skills and learn about AI agents.

Hector Garcia
Rajit Ahmed