CampusSync 🎓📱

Your Intelligent Campus Companion

CampusSync is a smart mobile application designed to help college students stream their academic life. From instantly digitizing timetables using AI to managing assignments and class notes, CampusSync ensures you never miss a beat.

💡 Inspiration

College life is chaotic. Between juggling different subjects, changing room numbers, and keeping track of endless assignment deadlines, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. We noticed that students still rely on blurry photos of timetables buried in their gallery or messy usage of notes apps. We wanted to build a "second brain" that proactively tells you where to be and what to do, rather than just being a passive storage bin.

🚀 Key Features

📅 AI Schedule Manager

• Instant Digitization: Just snap a photo of your paper timetable. Our integrated AI (Llama 4 Vision) reads the grid, identifying subjects, times, and room numbers automatically—even converting "1 PM" to "13:00" for consistency.
• Smart Dashboard: The home screen isn't just a calendar; it's a dynamic feed. It highlights your "Happening Now" class and shows exactly what's up next, so you're never late.
• Manual Overrides: AI getting 99% right but missing one room number? You have full manual control to edit your schedule anytime.

📝 Intelligent Class Notes

• Context-Aware Notebook: Click on any class in your schedule to open a dedicated workspace for that specific session.
• Rich Media: Type generic text notes or snap photos of the whiteboard directly into the app. All images are saved to your gallery in organized albums.
• AI Event Detection: This is the magic. When you save a note like "Test on chapter 4 next Monday", our background AI (Llama 3.3) analyzes the text, understands the relative date (e.g., "next Monday"), and prompts you to set a reminder immediately. It distinguishes between Exams, Deadlines, and Tasks.

🗄️ The Archives

• Time Travel for Notes: Never lose track of what you learned. Every note you take is indexed by Subject and Date.
• Semester History: Browse through past weeks to review photo attachments of blackboard diagrams or revision points from months ago.
• Clean Interface: Notes from previous days are automatically archived, keeping your daily view clutter-free.

🔔 Smart Notifications

• Event Reminders: Get nudged for upcoming tests or assignment submissions detected from your notes.
• Class Alerts: (Planned) Receive notifications before your next class starts.

🛠️ How we built it

We prioritized speed and user experience, choosing a robust tech stack:

• Frontend: Built with React Native (Expo) for a smooth, native experience on both iOS and Android.
• AI Engine: Leveraging Groq's API running Llama 3.3 & Llama 4 Vision models. We chose Groq for its incredibly low latency, making the "snap-to-schedule" feature feel instant.
• Backend: Google Firebase handles our Authentication, Real-time Database (Firestore), and Storage. It keeps data synced across devices instantly.

💻 Getting Started

Follow these steps to set up the project locally on your machine.

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or higher recommended)
• npm or yarn
• Expo Go app on your physical device (iOS/Android) OR an Android Emulator/iOS Simulator.

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/yking-ly/CampusSync.git
   cd CampusSync

2. Install dependencies

   npm install

3. Environment Configuration Create a .env file in the root directory and add your Groq API Key:

   EXPO_PUBLIC_GROQ_API_KEY=your_groq_api_key_here

4. Firebase Setup

   • Create a project in the Firebase Console.
   • Enable Authentication (Email/Password).
   • Enable Firestore Database.
   • Enable Storage.
   • Download google-services.json (for Android) and GoogleService-Info.plist (for iOS) and place them in the root directory.

5. Run the App

   npx expo start

   • Scan the QR code with the Expo Go app (Android) or Camera app (iOS).

🧠 Challenges we ran into

• OCR is hard: Timetables come in thousands of formats. Early on, standards OCR tools failed on complex grids. Switching to a Vision LLM (Llama-4) solved this but required careful prompt engineering to ensure the JSON output was strict and parseable every time.
• Date Context: Teaching the AI to understand that absolute dates mentioned in notes (e.g., "Test on the 5th") depend on the current date was a fun logic puzzle.
• State Management: Ensuring the "Up Next" card updates instantly when a class ends while keeping battery usage low required efficient use of time hooks and background state.

🔮 What's next for CampusSync

• Collaborative Notes: Allow an entire class to share one "Master Note".
• Attendance Tracker: Automatically suggest marking attendance based on your location and schedule.