Discover CU Boulder events effortlessly! Set preferences, get personalized event alerts & calendar invites. Stay connected!

https://youtu.be/DUDM809RSwY

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VCwXvL1xMObncciUkBdARr_etGcyC77w?usp=drive_link

A browser extension tailored for CU Boulder students. Set your event preferences once, and BuffLink will curate personalized events from the CU Boulder calendar, sending email notifications with calendar invites so you never miss out.

Tech Stack:

• Frontend: Chrome Extension (Manifest V3), Vanilla JS, Bootstrap 5
• Backend: Python 3, Flask, BeautifulSoup4
• AI/ML: Facebook BART Large MNLI (75% confidence threshold for event relevancy)
• Database: AWS DynamoDB
• Email: Gmail SMTP with iCalendar (.ics) attachments

• Python 3.9+
• AWS account with DynamoDB tables (User, NewEvents) in your chosen region
• A Gmail account with an App Password enabled
• Google Chrome (for the browser extension)

git clone https://github.com/rakeshy1116/hackCU-BuffLink.git
cd hackCU-BuffLink

pip install -r requirements.txt

Copy the example env file and fill in your values:

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env:

AWS_REGION=us-east-2
SENDER_EMAIL=[email protected]
SMTP_PASSWORD=your-gmail-app-password

# Optional: restrict to your Chrome extension's origin
# e.g. ALLOWED_ORIGINS=chrome-extension://abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz123456
ALLOWED_ORIGINS=*

FLASK_DEBUG=false
FLASK_PORT=5007

Never commit .env to version control. It is listed in .gitignore.

# Using python-dotenv (loaded automatically if you use the load_dotenv call)
# Or export manually:
export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs)
python post_request.py

1. Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions/
2. Enable Developer mode (top right)
3. Click Load unpacked and select the frontend/ directory
4. The BuffLink icon will appear in your toolbar

Create two tables in DynamoDB:

NewEvents attributes: title, description, startDate, endDate, eventStatus, url, image

User attributes: userName, previousMails (List), extensionPrompts (List)

Browser Extension (Frontend)
    ↓ POST: name, email, interests
Flask API (post_request.py :5007)
    ├→ Validate & store user prefs → DynamoDB (User table)
    ├→ Fetch all events → DynamoDB (NewEvents table)
    └→ BART NLI (75% threshold) → match events to interests
        ↓
    email_handler.py  (deduplication via previousMails)
        ↓
    send_email.py  (Gmail SMTP)
        ↓
    User Inbox: HTML email + .ics calendar invite

A separate scraper (parse_calendar.py → parse_event.py) populates the NewEvents table by parsing the CU Boulder calendar.

hackCU-BuffLink/
├── .env.example          # Environment variable template
├── .gitignore
├── requirements.txt
├── post_request.py       # Flask API entry point
├── parse_calendar.py     # CU Boulder calendar scraper
├── parse_event.py        # Individual event parser
├── email_handler.py      # Email orchestration & deduplication
├── build_email.py        # HTML email + iCalendar builder
├── send_email.py         # Gmail SMTP sender
├── user_dynamo.py        # User DynamoDB operations
├── fetch_user_data.py    # User query helpers
├── fetch_event_data.py   # Event query helpers
├── events_tableget.py    # Event table scanner
├── aws_dynamo.py         # Generic DynamoDB uploader
├── dynamo_db_format.py   # Python → DynamoDB type converter
├── lm.py                 # Alternative DistilBart implementation
└── frontend/
    ├── manifest.json     # Chrome extension manifest (V3)
    ├── index.html        # Extension popup UI
    ├── script.js         # Extension logic
    ├── style.css         # Styling
    └── background.js     # Service worker

Tired of missing out on exciting campus events? We felt the same! That's why we built BuffLink — a zero-cost, personalized event companion that delivers curated updates directly to your inbox.

Understanding user intent accurately was the main challenge. For example, "hike" could mean an outdoor activity or a salary negotiation talk. Balancing these interpretations required careful NLI prompt engineering.

• Built from scratch during HackCU — our first browser extension!
• Integrated NLP (BART), web scraping, AWS DynamoDB, and email delivery in a single weekend.
• Zero-cost architecture using AWS free tier + Gmail SMTP.

Teamwork, proper coordination, and new technologies (Chrome Extensions, Transformers, DynamoDB). This hackathon pushed our limits and showed us we could build more than we thought.

• On-campus job board integration (filter postings by student interest)
• Deadline reminders for international students (OPT/CPT dates, etc.)
• Unsubscribe / preference management interface
• Scheduled scraping to keep the events table fresh automatically