Inspiration

What it does

How we built it

Challenges we ran into

Accomplishments that we're proud of

What we learned

UniHop – Campus Rides, By Students, For Students

Inspiration

As Rutgers students, we know how frustrating it can be to travel between campuses. Whether it's waiting for an overcrowded LX bus, dealing with unpredictable bus schedules, or standing outside in freezing weather, getting to class on time can be a challenge. Sometimes, a trip that should take only 10 minutes ends up taking 30–45 minutes. On the other hand, Uber and Lyft can be expensive for students who just need a quick ride across campus.

We realized that while hundreds of students struggle with transportation every day, many other students have cars sitting in parking lots between classes. This inspired us to create UniHop, a student-to-student ridesharing platform that connects students who need transportation with fellow Rutgers students who can provide it.

Our goal was simple: make campus transportation faster, more affordable, and more convenient while giving students an opportunity to earn extra money.

What it does

UniHop is a student-exclusive ridesharing application designed specifically for Rutgers University–New Brunswick. It allows students to request affordable rides between College Avenue, Busch, Livingston, Cook/Douglass, and downtown New Brunswick without relying on crowded campus buses or expensive rideshare services.

Students can sign in using their Rutgers Scarletmail accounts, select their pickup and drop-off locations, and see the exact fare before confirming a ride. Every ride costs less than $10, with fixed pricing and no surge charges.

Once a ride is requested, UniHop automatically searches for the nearest available student driver. Drivers receive requests based on their location and can accept or decline them. After a driver accepts, the rider can track the vehicle in real time and view important information, including the driver's name, vehicle details, and license plate.

To make pickups more secure, UniHop generates a unique four-digit PIN for every ride. The driver must enter the correct PIN before starting the trip, helping ensure that the rider enters the correct vehicle.

UniHop also includes multiple payment options, including credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and UniHop Cash, a prepaid balance within the app. Payments are processed automatically when the ride is completed.

Another important part of UniHop is its driver experience. Students who own cars can switch to driver mode, accept rides whenever they are available, track their earnings, and keep 90% of the base fare. This allows students to earn flexible income between classes while helping other students reach their destinations.

Additional features include ride cancellation, payment refunds, ride history, digital receipts, driver and rider ratings, and real-time trip updates.

How we built it

We developed UniHop as a mobile-friendly web application that students can access directly from their phones.

For the frontend, we used Next.js, React, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS to create a clean and responsive interface. We integrated Leaflet maps to display campus locations, driver positions, and ride tracking.

For the backend, we used Java with Spring Boot to manage user accounts, driver registration, ride requests, pricing, payments, and driver matching. We used PostgreSQL to store application data and WebSockets to provide real-time communication between riders and drivers.

We also developed a simulated payment system that supports different payment methods, transaction holds, refunds, and driver payouts without processing real money.

To make UniHop fully demonstrable within the 24-hour hackathon, we created simulated drivers that can automatically accept requests and complete rides. This allows users to experience the entire ridesharing process even when multiple drivers are not physically available.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest technical challenges was bringing together the different components required for a complete ridesharing experience. Unlike a typical application, UniHop needed to handle riders, drivers, locations, payments, and ride statuses simultaneously.

Implementing real-time ride tracking and driver matching was particularly complex because both riders and drivers needed to receive accurate updates throughout a trip. We also needed to ensure that ride requests were assigned to nearby available drivers rather than randomly selecting one.

Another challenge was designing a reliable payment workflow. We needed to account for situations such as canceled rides, unavailable drivers, declined payments, and refunds while making sure students were not incorrectly charged.

Finally, building and connecting the frontend, backend, database, and real-time communication features within a 24-hour hackathon required careful planning and teamwork. To make testing easier, we implemented simulated drivers and mock payments while preserving the core experience of a real ridesharing application.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our biggest accomplishment was building a functional end-to-end campus ridesharing prototype within just 24 hours.

We are especially proud of our automatic driver-matching system, which identifies nearby available drivers and sends them ride requests, as well as our real-time tracking functionality that allows students to follow their rides on a map.

Another feature we are proud of is our fixed-pricing model. By keeping every trip under $10 and eliminating surge pricing, we designed UniHop around the financial needs of college students rather than traditional ridesharing models.

We are also proud of implementing secure PIN-based pickups, a complete simulated payment system, driver earnings tracking, and automatic ride completion through simulated drivers.

Most importantly, we created something that addresses a problem we personally experience as Rutgers students. UniHop is not just another ridesharing concept; it is a solution designed around the everyday transportation challenges of our own university community.

What we learned

Building UniHop helped us understand how many different systems need to work together to create a smooth ridesharing experience.

We gained valuable experience with real-time communication, location-based driver matching, frontend and backend integration, database management, and payment processing workflows.

We also learned the importance of designing for unexpected situations, such as driver unavailability, ride cancellations, and payment failures.

Beyond technical skills, this hackathon taught us how important teamwork, communication, and time management are when developing a project under a strict deadline.

Most importantly, we learned that some of the best ideas come from problems we experience in our everyday lives. UniHop showed us how technology can help solve a real campus problem while creating opportunities for students to help one another.

UniHop – Skip the wait. Share the ride. Own your campus commute.