VoiceOfTheCity

System architecture diagram

Inspiration

Every day, residents notice issues around their neighbourhoods such as potholes, overflowing bins, broken streetlights, fallen trees, and flooded drains. While these problems may seem small individually, reporting them is often inconvenient and confusing. People may not know which agency is responsible, what information to provide, or whether their report will actually be followed up on. We wanted to explore how AI could simplify this process. Our goal was to create a platform that allows citizens to report city issues quickly while helping municipal officers receive more structured and actionable reports.

What it does

VoiceOfTheCity transforms a simple photo into a structured maintenance report. A user uploads an image of a city issue, and our AI-powered system analyzes the image to identify the issue category, severity level, priority and responsible department, and recommended actions. The user can then submit the report directly through the platform. On the backend, officers can view reports through a dashboard that tracks each issue through different stages such as Pending review, Open, In-progress, Closed, Rejected and Spam. This provides greater transparency for both citizens and city management teams.

How we built it

We built VoiceOfTheCity as a full-stack web application using React.js, Node.js and Firebase. The frontend provides an intuitive interface for image uploads, AI analysis results, and report tracking. Firebase was used to manage authentication, data storage, and report records, while external APIs handled image analysis and location services. For the AI component, we integrated the Reka AI API to analyze uploaded images, classify city issues, determine severity levels, identify the responsible department, and generate recommended actions and report summaries. We also developed a dashboard that allows users to view report statuses and gives officers a centralized view of incoming cases. Throughout development, we focused on creating a clean and realistic workflow that demonstrates how AI can support smarter city maintenance operations. We also integrated Google Maps to help users pinpoint issue locations and provide more accurate information for municipal officers.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges was designing a system that could handle the wide variety of city issues while keeping the user experience simple. We also had to think about practical concerns such as duplicate reports, inaccurate image classifications, poor image quality, and determining the correct priority level for different incidents. Another challenge was balancing technical complexity with the limited development timeline.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we successfully built an end-to-end AI-powered reporting workflow that takes a city issue from image upload to actionable maintenance report generation and status tracking. Instead of creating a simple image classifier, we designed a solution that demonstrates how AI can be integrated into a real-world operational process. The platform not only identifies issues but also generates actionable recommendations and provides transparency through status tracking. We are also proud of creating a clean user interface that makes reporting city issues fast and accessible for everyday users.

What we learned

This project taught us that building an effective AI solution is about more than just the model itself. We learned the importance of user experience, workflow design, and understanding how technology fits into real operational environments. We also gained hands-on experience with full-stack web development, API integration, AI-powered decision support systems, and collaborative software development. Most importantly, we learned how to turn a real-world problem into a functional prototype within a short development cycle.

What's next for VoiceOfTheCity

In future iterations, we plan to integrate real computer vision models for more accurate issue detection and severity assessment. Our long-term vision is to transform VoiceOfTheCity into a smart civic engagement platform that helps residents and city authorities work together to maintain safer, cleaner, and more responsive urban environments.