BrainBank

BrainBank is a note-taking and study collaboration platform built for Northeastern University students. It combines course-organized notes, real-time peer messaging, and an AI-powered tutor to help students study smarter.

---

Features

Notes

• Create, upload, and manage notes organized by course section
• Attach images and PDFs; text is extracted via OCR automatically
• Browse and access notes shared across course sections

Courses

• Browse courses and course sections
• View professor information linked to each section

Real-Time Messaging

• Direct messaging between users via WebSockets
• Messages delivered instantly if the recipient is online; stored for later otherwise

AI Tutor (BrainBot)

• Course-specific AI chatbot powered by Google Gemini
• Uses your uploaded notes and documents as context for answers
• Maintains conversation history per user per course section

Authentication

• Supabase-based JWT authentication
• Persistent sessions on the frontend via AsyncStorage

---

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React Native (Expo), TypeScript, Expo Router
Backend	Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL
Auth	Supabase Auth (JWT / EC256)
AI	Google Gemini API
Realtime	WebSockets
File Processing	PyPDF2, pdf2image, pytesseract (OCR)
Observability	OpenTelemetry + Jaeger
Infrastructure	Docker, Docker Compose

---

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose
• Node.js + npm
• Python 3.11+
• Expo CLI (npm install -g expo-cli)

Running the App

Start Jaeger for tracing with Docker Compose:

docker-compose up

Or use the Makefile:

make dev        # Run backend and frontend in parallel, may need to create venv first
make backend    # Backend only (http://0.0.0.0:8000)
make frontend   # Frontend only (Expo)
make format     # Correctly reformats backend
make fix        # Fixes frontend and backend linting errors
make test       # Runs all tests
make test-backend-install # installs dev requirements - used mostly in tests
make test-backend         # Runs all backend tests

or running them individually:

backend:

uvicorn main:app --reload --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000;

frontend:

npx expo start --clear

Jaeger tracing UI: http://localhost:16686

---

Project Structure

/backend
  ├── main.py               # FastAPI app entry point
  ├── auth.py               # JWT verification
  ├── telemetry.py          # OpenTelemetry setup
  ├── api/routes/           # API endpoints (notes, courses, chat, messages, users)
  ├── db/crud/              # Database operations
  └── core/                 # AI service, PDF processing

/frontend
  ├── app/(auth)/           # Login & signup screens
  ├── app/(tabs)/           # Main tabs: Notes, Courses, Chat, BrainBot, Profile
  └── services/             # API clients and Supabase config

---

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in /backend with:

DATABASE_URL=...
SUPABASE_JWT_X=...
SUPABASE_JWT_Y=...
GEMINI_API_KEY=...

Create a .env in /frontend with your Supabase project URL and anon key.