UniConnect

What inspired us: We were inspired by the difficulty many university students face when trying to discover societies and stay informed about upcoming campus events. Information is often scattered across different social media platforms, group chats, or outdated websites, making it hard for students to engage with communities that match their interests.

We wanted to create a central platform specifically designed for university societies — something that combines the social and community aspects of platforms like Facebook with the simplicity of discovering events and following student organisations.

How We Built It: We built the frontend using React and Vite, with React Router handling navigation between pages. For the UI, we used Material UI components such as AppBars, Buttons, TextFields, and layout components to create a clean and responsive interface.

Some of the key features we implemented include: -User authentication pages -Society creation pages -Event creation functionality -Dynamic navigation based on user actions -Routing between pages using React Router -Responsive layouts using Material UI and CSS modules

Challenges We Faced: One of the biggest challenges was structuring the React application as it grew. Managing routes, passing state between components, and conditionally rendering UI elements became more complex as new features were added.

Another challenge was designing the platform in a way that could scale beyond a prototype. We had to think about how society ownership, event permissions, and user interactions would eventually work with a backend and database system. What We Learned

Through this project, we learned: -How to structure a React application using components and routing -How to use Material UI for responsive design -How state and props work together in React -The importance of reusable layouts and clean component organisation -How frontend prototypes can later evolve into full-stack applications with authentication and persistent data