Inspiration
While looking for a place for the group to work on this hackathon, we realized that finding a study spot is a daily problem that should not be as hard as it is. We decided to built a program that allows the user to see where people are populated on campus and let them decided where to go based on that.
What it does
ZooMap is a campus app for UMass Amherst: a 3D campus map with a live people-density heatmap, a walking route planner, class schedule integration, hosted activities, and points for time spent at activities that can be spent in a store. From looking for quiet places to study or playing in a soccer tournament this will help students decided where and when to go to whatever activities they want to.
How we built it
Frontend/backend: One TypeScript Next.js app using React, Tailwind, and API route handlers. Map: MapLibre GL renders a 3D campus map. Campus buildings, walkways, entrances, and points are generated from OpenStreetMap data. Routing: ZooMap computes outdoor walking routes from its own OpenStreetMap footpath graph. Data/auth: MongoDB Atlas stores users, activities, schedules, and the points ledger. Auth.js/Google OAuth restricts sign-in to verified umass.edu accounts. Density: User location is reduced to coarse H3 cells; a simulated density source ensures the demo still works with few users. AI: Gemini recommends study locations from server-generated candidates. Rewards: Users earn points for location-verified activity time and can redeem them for mock store items. Mobile: A Capacitor Android shell adds background location support; browsers use foreground location. Deployment: Designed for Vercel’s serverless environment, using polling rather than background jobs or websockets.
Challenges we ran into
One of the biggest challenges we ran into was managing 9 people for one project. It turns out having too many chefs in the kitchen is actually a problem, but can be very beneficial when managed correctly.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
One accomplishment we are proud of is creating a full 3d map of the flagship UMass campus and integrating it into our application and create an interactive experience for the user.
What we learned
We learned how to efficiently use AI to maximily express our creativity. Instead of letting AI do the full project for us, we used it as a tool to help us implement features we believed were beneficial.
What's next for ZooMap
Scaling it to the thousands of students on campus. This will make the lives of so many students easier through providing more structure to their day and having full access to the campus at their fingertips.
