TapIn

Inspiration

We wanted to make it easier for students to discover and join spontaneous on-campus events -- whether it’s a club tabling, a study group, or free food on the quad. Too often, people miss out on great experiences simply because they didn’t know they were happening. Our goal was to build a social app that bridges that gap -- something that benefits both clubs and students by encouraging real-world interaction, helping people meet new friends, and making campus life more connected and alive.

What it does

TapIn is an iOS app that connects students to real, in-person campus moments. Users can log in with their .edu email, create events under categories like clubs, study sessions, or social meetups, and pin their location directly on a campus map. Others can discover events nearby, tap “Go” to show interest, and navigate to the destination. TapIn also tracks event popularity as more students join, surfacing the most active and trending spots on campus.

How we built it

TapIn is a native iOS app built entirely with SwiftUI and Firebase. We used Firebase Authentication to verify users through their .edu emails, ensuring only students can create events. Event data is stored in Firestore, with collections for events, user selections (“I’m going”), and arrivals (“I’m here”). The app listens to Firestore updates in real time, allowing users to instantly see new and trending events. Map functionality is powered by MapKit and CoreLocation. We also calculate event trending scores directly on the device, based on recent attendance and engagement, keeping the experience fast and responsive.

Challenges we ran into

One challenge we ran into was managing our GitHub repo and keeping track of all the changes and commits. We had some issues with .gitignore early on that caused some difficulties later on, especially since our team was new to using version control in a team environment. We also found it difficult to code the UI exactly how we wanted, especially when working with multiple views and MapKit.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of building a complete app that we believe many students on campus would actually use. For many of us, this was our first full-stack application, so we're proud of how well we integrated the frontend and backend. Finally, we're proud of adhering to our development principles and, despite some difficulties, using version control and parallel development effectively.

What we learned

During this hackathon, we learned a lot about git. Also, we learned about how to plan effectively, set goals, and communicate to ensure consistent progress. We learned how to use SwiftUI tools such as MapKit and CoreLocation, and how to integrate a SwiftUI app with a Firebase backend. Finally, we learned about how to use Cloud Functions to handle backend logic in Firebase.

What's next for TapIn

We believe that TapIn has a lot of potential and plan to continue development after the hackathon. A few features we want to include:

Integrating Live Activity for lock screen updates
Adding more robust event management and planning
Adding a friends/contacts feature, to be notified when friends are attending events near you
Adding RSVP and check-in features to help event organizers track attendance