Waypoint

Waypoint: Gamifying Campus Events with Real-Time Maps, Chat, and AI

Inspiration

We wanted to revolutionize how students find and join campus events, inspired by gamified apps like Pokémon GO and AI-driven assistants like Siri. Waypoint combines live maps, chat, and now a Gemini-powered AI assistant to make events interactive and insightful.

What We Learned

Mastering Flutter with Firebase was a start—real-time maps and chat were tough enough. Adding Gemini via Vertex AI in Firebase taught us prompt engineering (crafting event-specific queries) and integrating AI into a mobile app seamlessly.

How We Built It

Built with Flutter and Dart, powered by Firebase (Authentication, Firestore, Cloud Functions). flutter_map and latlong2 drive the map, while shared_preferences handles onboarding. The star addition? Google Gemini (Vertex AI in Firebase)—an AI assistant in EventDetailsScreen that answers event questions using real-time data. Code’s on GitHub—check it out!

Challenges We Faced

Gradle conflicts haunted us—Firebase and Gemini setup took hours of tweaking. Real-time syncing lagged until we optimized Firestore queries. The AI assistant needed precise prompts to avoid generic answers, and emulator hiccups tested our patience. We conquered it all for a standout hack!