Hi, we’re Team TransitLink. We convert existing campus buses into predictable, low-cost delivery vehicles by integrating directly with live transit routes.
The key difference is that we’re route-aware, not distance-based. Buses don’t move freely — they follow ordered stops. So instead of using straight-line distance, we ingest live GPS and route XML, map each bus to its nearest stop using a spatial index, and compute ETA based on the number of stops remaining. Since campus routes are circular, we handle forward and backward traversal safely to avoid rollover errors.
ETA is calculated as stops_between × average_minutes_per_stop, and if route data fails, we gracefully fall back to distance-based estimation with a lower confidence score.
For matching, we evaluate every active bus in O(B) time and score them based on distance to restaurant, delivery ETA, alignment with prep time, and route efficiency. The highest score wins. Matching is stateless, so it scales horizontally.
Operationally, it’s simple. Orders are prepaid, so restaurants have zero risk. The steward scans a QR at pickup — status becomes ON_BUS. They scan again at delivery — status becomes COMPLETED. Two scans, two timestamps. That’s the full audit trail.
Authentication is role-based. Students see only their orders, restaurants see their queue, and stewards see assigned deliveries. No cross-access.
We also ingest live bus tracking roughly every 15 seconds, so ETAs update dynamically — but because they’re anchored to stop indices instead of raw GPS, they’re stable and not jittery.
TransitLink works because we respect routes, ensure accountability through QR verification, and reuse existing infrastructure — making delivery predictable, frictionless, and scalable
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