Noted

Inspiration

As university students, we understand how challenging it can be to keep up with coursework, especially when classes move quickly or notes are missed. We saw how often students rely on sharing notes with classmates, but noticed there was no simple, organized way to do this within a course. That inspired us to build Noted, an app that lets students scan and share notes with classmates, making collaboration and studying more accessible for everyone.

What it does

We built an app where students can share their notes for their specific class. It's a platform where students can connect and share notes at the ease of scanning their notes and having our Scanner feature in the app turning it into a pdf.

How we built it

We designed the app using Figma and built the frontend with React Native and Expo Go. The backend was developed in Python using FastAPI, with MongoDB for data storage. We also integrated tools like Pydantic for data validation, PyMongo for database access, Uvicorn for running the server, Bcrypt for secure password hashing, Cloudinary for media handling, and PDF processing libraries to support note uploads.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was implementing and integrating the backend APIs with the mobile frontend. Ensuring seamless communication between the app and the server required careful handling of requests, authentication, and error management. Building the backend itself was another challenge, particularly setting up the database and structuring data effectively. Learning how to design and connect a MongoDB database, define schemas, and manage user and class-based data took significant problem-solving and iteration. We also faced challenges implementing the scanning feature, converting scanned images into clean, readable PDFs while keeping the process fast and intuitive for users. Additionally, syncing a locally hosted backend with a mobile app during development required configuring networking and permissions so the app could reliably communicate with the server on physical devices.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of building a fully functional, end-to-end application that allows students to scan, convert, and share notes seamlessly within their specific classes. Successfully integrating a mobile frontend with a custom backend and database was a major milestone for our team, which consisted of three first-time hackathon participants. We’re especially proud of implementing the scanner feature that transforms handwritten notes into PDFs, making sharing fast and accessible. Additionally, setting up the backend infrastructure and MongoDB database to handle users, classes, and uploads helped us gain valuable experience in full-stack development.

What we learned

Through building Noted, we gained hands-on experience developing a full-stack mobile application from concept to deployment. We learned how to integrate a mobile frontend with a custom backend, design and manage a MongoDB database, and handle real-world challenges such as API communication, authentication, and mobile networking. We also learned how to implement a scan-to-PDF feature, balancing performance with usability, and how to debug cross-platform issues when testing on physical devices. Beyond the technical skills, this project strengthened our teamwork, communication, and problem-solving abilities under time constraints.

What's next for Noted

Next, we plan to expand Noted by adding more collaborative features, such as note commenting, ratings, and version history. We also want to improve the scanning experience with better image enhancement and text recognition.

In the future, we aim to introduce user profiles with customizable classes, cloud storage for scalability, and enhanced security and authentication. Ultimately, our goal is to grow Noted into a platform that makes academic collaboration easier and more accessible for students everywhere.