BePresent

Inspiration

BePresent was inspired by apps like BeReal and Cereal, which encourage authenticity and presence through real-time interaction. Traditional attendance systems often feel impersonal and easy to exploit, leading to disengagement. We wanted to rethink attendance as something social, visual, and motivating — encouraging students not just to attend class, but to actually be present.

What it does

BePresent is an attendance system that allows students to:

Take a real-time selfie during class to record attendance
View selfies of other students attending the same module and session
Build attendance streaks by consistently showing up to class
Receive a monthly attendance “Wrapped” that highlights:
- Total classes attended
- Attendance percentage
- Longest streak
- Missed classes

This transforms attendance into an engaging and rewarding experience rather than a passive task. BePresent was built as a full-stack web application.

How we built it

Backend: Built using Flask (Python), handling authentication, attendance logic, streak tracking, and secure API endpoints
Database: Stores users, modules, class sessions, selfies, and attendance records using MongoDB.
Authentication: Protected routes ensure only authorised users can access or submit attendance.
Frontend: Enables camera access for selfie capture, class timelines, and visual attendance statistics. Implemented using React and Tailwind and Google Gemini.

Challenges we ran into

One major challenge was implementing secure authentication and understanding how protected routes work. Debugging issues such as 401 Unauthorized and 404 Not Found responses required a deeper understanding of backend routing and request handling.

Another challenge was designing reliable streak logic. Real-world attendance patterns include missed classes and irregular schedules, making it difficult to track streaks accurately without edge-case errors.