SIDride

Inspiration

SIDride was inspired by a real situation involving our friend. Their car was in the mechanic shop, and they needed a ride but struggled to find one. Even though she lived on campus and had a strong network, coordinating transportation wasn’t as easy as it should have been. That moment made us realize how common this problem is, many students drive alone or rely on last-minute solutions when a simple, structured system could connect people more efficiently.

What it does

SIDride is a student carpooling platform designed specifically for university communities. It allows students to create recurring ride schedules based on their class routines, match with other students traveling similar routes, and request or offer rides in a structured way. Riders can schedule trips (like “MWF to campus at 10 AM”), while drivers can accept requests, manage ride commitments, and communicate through in-app messaging. The platform also includes real-time ride requests and map-based interaction making transportation more accessible, organized, and efficient.

How we built it

We built connected rider and driver dashboards so users could log in, schedule rides, request rides, and manage trips in one app
We created backend APIs to handle onboarding, ride matching, messaging, ride status updates, ratings
We stored users, rides, requests, messages, and earnings in a database so all activity saves and reloads correctly
We added maps, address search, and browser location so drivers and riders can see ride locations and tracking visually
We tested the app through real user flows, frontend builds, and backend smoke tests, then improved areas that felt confusing or broken

Challenges we ran into

Designing recurring ride logic
Harder than one-time rides
Structuring the databases
Adding the tracking tool
Organizing the app lay out
Not adding too many features
Designing a database that supports recurring schedules + real-time ride requests
Debugging backend errors
Handling merge conflicts in frontend files and keeping everything consistent

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Building a fully functional backend with multiple interconnected systems (users, rides, messaging, schedules)
Creating a calendar-based recurring ride system
Designing a UI that mimics real-world apps (maps, ride requests, messaging)
Successfully connecting frontend and backend into a working full-stack application