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yogita patil
yogita patil

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HostelEase AI

HostelEase AI — AI-Powered Hostel Service Management on Google Cloud

Introduction

Hostel students deal with many everyday problems — broken furniture, electrical issues, plumbing problems, cleaning requests, pest control, gate-pass requests, and important hostel announcements.

Usually, these issues are reported through calls, WhatsApp messages, registers, or verbal communication. This can make it difficult for students to know the status of their request and for wardens to prioritize and assign issues efficiently.

To solve this problem, we built HostelEase AI, an AI-powered hostel service management platform that connects students, wardens, and maintenance staff in one secure application.

What is HostelEase AI?

HostelEase AI allows students to submit hostel-related requests from a single platform.

A student can report an issue by entering a description or uploading an image. Gemini AI can analyze the reported problem and help identify:

🔧 Likely problem
📂 Issue category
🚨 Priority level
👷 Recommended maintenance staff
🛠️ Suggested action

The warden can then review the request, assign it to the appropriate staff member, and track the resolution.

Students can follow their request status until the issue is resolved.

🔄 How the Application Works

The main workflow is:

Student Login → Report Issue → Upload Image/Text → Gemini AI Analysis → Category & Priority → Warden Review → Staff Assignment → Resolution → Student Status Update**

This creates a complete flow from reporting a problem to resolving it.

🤖 How Gemini AI Is Used

Gemini is used as the intelligence layer of HostelEase AI.

For example, a student can upload a photograph of a damaged chair and describe the problem.

The AI can analyze the available information and provide a structured result such as:

Detected Problem: Possible damaged chair adjustment mechanism
Category: Furniture Maintenance
Priority: Medium
Recommended Staff: Carpenter / Maintenance Staff
Suggested Action: Inspect the adjustment mechanism and repair or replace the damaged component.

If the image is unclear, the application can indicate that the issue cannot be confirmed from the image alone instead of presenting an uncertain result as a fact.

🧩 Main Features

👨‍🎓 Student Portal

Students can:

  • Report maintenance issues
  • Upload issue images
  • Request room cleaning
  • Request pest control
  • Apply for gate passes
  • View announcements
  • Track request status

🧑‍💼 Warden Console

Wardens can:

  • View submitted requests
  • Review AI-generated issue analysis
  • Check priority
  • Assign requests to maintenance staff
  • Track request progress
  • Manage hostel service requests

👷 Staff Work Orders

Maintenance staff can view assigned work orders and update the status of their tasks.

📢 Announcements

Wardens can communicate important hostel information to students through the platform.

🔐 Security

Security was an important part of the project because the challenge focuses on building an application suitable for production.

HostelEase AI uses:

  • Firebase Authentication for user authentication
  • Cloud Firestore for application data
  • Role-based access for students, wardens, and staff
  • Firestore security rules for data isolation
  • Server-side handling of AI credentials
  • Google Cloud Run for deployment

The official challenge emphasizes secure authentication, user-isolated Firestore data, protection of API credentials, and secure Cloud Run deployment.

☁️ Google Cloud Run Deployment

HostelEase AI was deployed using Google Cloud Run, allowing the application to be accessed through a public web URL.

Cloud Run provides a convenient way to deploy the containerized application without managing traditional servers.

Live Application:
[https://hostelease-ai-54284357300.asia-southeast1.run.app]

💻 Source Code

The project source code is available publicly on GitHub:

GitHub Repository:**
https://github.com/yp20082007-spec/hostelease-ai-project

The repository contains the application source code and project configuration.

🛠️ Technology Stack

Technology Purpose
Google AI Studio AI-assisted application development
Gemini API AI-powered issue analysis
Firebase Authentication Secure user authentication
Cloud Firestore Application data storage
Google Cloud Run Application deployment
GitHub Source-code management

🌟 What Makes HostelEase AI Different?

Instead of treating hostel complaints as simple messages, HostelEase AI turns them into structured service requests.

The AI-assisted workflow helps transform:

Student's Problem → AI Understanding → Priority → Staff Recommendation → Action → Resolution

This can help reduce communication gaps and make hostel service management more organized.

🔮 Future Improvements

Future versions could include:

  • Automatic notification to students when request status changes
  • Estimated resolution time
  • Maintenance history
  • Hostel-wise analytics
  • QR-code based room identification
  • Multilingual support
  • Voice-based complaint submission
  • Automatic escalation of unresolved critical issues
  • AI-powered maintenance cost estimation

🎯 Conclusion

HostelEase AI demonstrates how generative AI can be combined with authentication, cloud databases, and serverless deployment to solve a practical everyday problem.

Our goal is simple:

One platform. Every hostel problem. Smarter resolution.

The project was developed as part of the Google Cloud Gen AI Academy Ideathon using Google AI Studio, Gemini, Firebase, Firestore, and Google Cloud Run.

AccelerateAIwithCloudRun #GoogleCloud #Gemini #GenAI #AI #Firebase #CloudRun

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