Submission for FusionHacks 1.0 on Devpost

Canteen Eats - Making College Food Ordering a Breeze

Inspiration

The idea for Canteen Eats emerged from observing the daily struggles students face when ordering food from college canteens. Long queues, limited time between classes, and the inconvenience of carrying cash motivated me to create a digital solution that would streamline the entire food ordering process. I wanted to bridge the gap between traditional canteen operations and modern mobile technology, making meal planning more efficient for the busy college lifestyle.

What it does

Canteen Eats is a comprehensive mobile application that revolutionizes how college students interact with their campus canteens. The app allows students to:

• Browse interactive menus with detailed food descriptions
• Place orders with customizable options
• Make secure online payments
• Schedule deliveries at their convenience
• Track orders in real-time from confirmation to delivery
• Save favorite meals for quick reordering

Additionally, canteen staff can efficiently manage menus, track orders, and monitor inventory through an integrated admin panel. The platform supports both Android and iOS devices, ensuring accessibility across different user preferences.

How I built it

I built Canteen Eats using Flutter for cross-platform mobile development, ensuring a consistent user experience across both Android and iOS devices. The architecture includes:

Frontend:

• Flutter framework for native cross-platform performance
• Custom UI components for intuitive navigation
• Real-time state management for order tracking

Backend:

• Supabase for authentication, real-time database, and file storage
• Row Level Security (RLS) for data protection
• SharedPreferences for local data caching

Key Features Implemented:

• Secure payment gateway integration
• Real-time order status updates
• Push notifications for order confirmations
• Offline capability for menu browsing

Challenges I ran into

During development, I encountered several technical and logistical challenges:

1. Real-time synchronization: Implementing real-time order tracking while maintaining app performance required careful optimization of database queries and efficient state management.

2. Payment security: Ensuring secure online payment processing demanded extensive testing and compliance with payment security standards.

3. User experience design: Creating an interface that would be equally intuitive for both tech-savvy and less technical users required multiple iterations and user testing.

4. Complex data relationships: Managing the relationship between students, orders, menu items, and canteen staff required sophisticated database design and user role management.

5. Performance optimization: Balancing feature richness with app performance, especially for real-time updates and image loading.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

• Seamless user experience: Successfully created an intuitive interface that eliminates traditional canteen ordering pain points
• Real-time tracking system: Implemented a robust order tracking system that provides transparency and reduces user anxiety
• Secure payment integration: Built a safe and reliable payment system supporting multiple payment methods
• Cross-platform compatibility: Achieved native-like performance on both Android and iOS with a single codebase
• Scalable architecture: Designed the system to easily accommodate multiple colleges and growing user bases
• Admin efficiency: Created powerful tools for canteen staff to manage operations effectively

What I learned

This project provided invaluable lessons in:

• User-centered design: The importance of understanding real-world workflows before implementing digital solutions
• Balance in development: How to balance feature richness with simplicity to ensure accessibility for users with varying technical expertise
• Security best practices: Deep understanding of secure payment processing and data protection in mobile applications
• Real-time systems: Working with real-time databases and managing state efficiently across multiple user sessions
• Business process optimization: How technology can address efficiency bottlenecks in traditional business models
• Cross-platform development: Optimizing Flutter applications for both Android and iOS platforms

What's next for Canteen Eats

I have exciting plans to expand Canteen Eats with several new features:

Immediate roadmap:

• Integration with campus meal plans and student ID systems
• Analytics dashboards for canteen administrators
• Nutritional information display and dietary filters
• Social features for meal sharing and reviews

Future vision:

• AI-powered meal recommendations based on ordering history and preferences
• Multi-college network with standardized payment systems
• Inventory management automation with predictive ordering
• Integration with campus delivery services
• Loyalty programs and student discounts
• Voice ordering capabilities
• Sustainability tracking for eco-conscious dining choices

Technical improvements:

• Enhanced offline capabilities
• Advanced analytics and reporting tools
• Machine learning for demand forecasting
• AR menu visualization

Technical Stack

• Frontend: Flutter (Dart)
• Backend: Supabase (PostgreSQL, Auth, Storage)
• Local Storage: SharedPreferences
• State Management: Provider/Riverpod
• Payments: Razorpay/Stripe integration
• Notifications: Firebase Cloud Messaging

Demo

Link to demo video

Built With

• Flutter
• Supabase
• Dart
• PostgreSQL
• Riverpod