AlumNet: Closed-Loop Institutional Mentorship & Engagement Platform

AlumNet is a premium, closed-loop institutional SaaS mentorship and alumni engagement platform developed by Team Syntax Squad for the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2025 (Problem Statement #25017). Unlike open platforms, AlumNet operates on pre-verified institutional trust—locking connectivity exclusively within a university's verified network to deliver high-quality mentorship, job referrals, and career outcomes.

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🚀 Key Features

• 🔒 Verified Onboarding: Institution-led invitation flows and bulk verification queues.
• 📂 Multi-Role Architecture: Dedicated access views for Students, Alumni, College Admins, and System Super-Admins.
• 📅 Slot-Based Mentorship: Availability calendar syncing, automatic timezones, and integrations for video sessions.
• 💼 Job Referral Portal: Exclusive job boards, application workflows, and referral queue status trackers.
• 💬 Real-time Communication: 1:1 chat, media uploads, auto-replies, and notification digest settings.
• 🤖 AI-Powered Assistant: Custom-tailored assistant powered by Azure AI Inference to answer platform inquiries, assist with alumni navigation, and guide users.

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🛠️ Technology Stack

Layer	Technologies
Frontend	React 19, TypeScript, Vite, React Router, TanStack Query, Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui, Framer Motion
Backend & Auth	Firebase Authentication, Firebase Cloud Functions (v2), Node.js, Express
Database & Storage	Cloud Firestore, Cloud Storage, Firebase Realtime Database (for chat sync)
AI Integration	Azure AI Inference SDK, Github Models (GPT-4o)

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📁 Project Directory Structure

client/                         # Project Root
├── src/                        # Source files
│   ├── components/             # Reusable UI components & layouts
│   ├── hooks/                  # Custom React hooks
│   ├── lib/                    # Config, context providers, and utils
│   └── pages/                  # Page views organized by role / route
├── functions/                  # Firebase Cloud Functions (Backend APIs)
│   ├── index.js                # Cloud function handlers (e.g. AI Chat backend)
│   └── package.json            # Cloud function package config
├── scripts/                    # Database seeding & administrative scripts
├── docs/                       # Project Documentation (Route specs, tech docs)
│   ├── ALUMNET_DOCUMENTATION.md # In-depth technical architecture
│   └── pages_specification.md   # Front-end pages & route matrix
├── file.txt                    # Raw page specifications
└── package.json                # Node project configuration

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⚙️ Development Setup

Follow these steps to run the client application and backend cloud functions locally.

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or higher recommended)
• Firebase CLI installed globally:

  npm install -g firebase-tools

1. Running the Client Locally

1. Install dependencies using npm or bun:

   npm install
   # or
   bun install

2. Configure environment variables: Create a .env.local file based on .env.example:

   VITE_FIREBASE_API_KEY="your-api-key"
   VITE_FIREBASE_AUTH_DOMAIN="your-auth-domain.firebaseapp.com"
   VITE_FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID="your-project-id"
   VITE_FIREBASE_STORAGE_BUCKET="your-storage-bucket.appspot.com"
   VITE_FIREBASE_MESSAGING_SENDER_ID="your-sender-id"
   VITE_FIREBASE_APP_ID="your-app-id"
   VITE_AICHAT_FUNCTION_URL="http://127.0.0.1:5001/your-project-id/us-central1/aichat" # Local emulator URL

3. Run the development server:

   npm run dev

2. Running Backend Cloud Functions Locally

1. Navigate to the functions directory:

   cd functions

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Configure local secret keys. Set your GITHUB_TOKEN secret for the AI assistant chatbot:

   firebase functions:secrets:set GITHUB_TOKEN="your_github_token"

4. Run the Firebase Emulator Suite to emulate functions locally:

   firebase emulators:start

3. Seeding the Database

To run the seeding script and populate your Firestore instance with sample mock data (students, alumni, sessions, referrals, and admin configurations):

1. Set up the Firebase admin credentials. Make sure you place your firebase-service-account.json file in this directory.
2. Run the seed script:

   npm run seed

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📚 Further Documentation

For deeper details, consult the following documentation in the docs directory:

• 📖 AlumNet Technical Documentation: Database schemas, Firebase rules, API designs, onboarding workflows, and design systems.
• 🗺️ Pages & Route Specification: Complete index of student, alumni, college admin, and system admin routes and functionalities.