Campus Hub: Smart Campus Rentals and Collab Platform with ML Powered Moderation

Abstract

CampusHub is a cutting-edge campus platform that seamlessly integrates academic collaboration and resource sharing, two essential student needs. It unifies campus life by combining equipment borrowing with project teamwork, in contrast to conventional rental systems or stand-alone study aids. CampusHub, which was developed using contemporary web technologies, provides features like student verification, study group formation, and real-time chat for rentals. Its distinctive layout makes it easy for students to switch between working together on projects and sharing resources (such as lab equipment or textbooks).CampusHub demonstrated encouraging results during university trials; instructors observed increased peer learning, and students used it naturally for teamwork and logistics. The platform serves as an example of how digital tools can more accurately capture the dynamics of a real campus, where cooperation and sharing are essential.

Introduction

Overview:
CampusHub is an innovative digital platform designed to transform how university communities collaborate academically and share resources. Unlike fragmented and outdated methods (e.g., Facebook groups, bulletin boards), CampusHub offers a unified, intelligent system that integrates an AI-powered rental marketplace and a real-time collaboration engine, specifically tailored for the dynamics of campus life.

Core Features

1. Intelligent Rental Marketplace

• AI-moderated item listings using Xenova transformers standardize descriptions.

• Location-aware searches prioritize nearby resources.

• Multi-tier verification (user ratings + institutional email) builds trust.

2. Dynamic Collaboration Engine

• Real-time Firebase chat enables instant, context-aware communication.

• Skill-based matching connects users for group projects or study sessions.

• Activity logs foster long-term academic partnerships.

Project Goals

• Streamlined Rentals: Simple interface, transparent transactions, and reduced waste.

• Enhanced Collaboration: Skill sharing, project support, and real-time academic networking.

• Sustainable Practices: Promotes borrowing over buying, reducing financial and environmental costs.

Literature Review Insights

• Existing platforms often isolate collaboration from resource sharing.

• CampusHub bridges this gap by integrating collaboration tools with localized marketplaces.

• Trust mechanisms (e.g., .edu verification, reputation scores) and AI moderation are emphasized, informed by prior studies showing their effectiveness in academic P2P systems.

• Platform design also incorporates gamification, skill-based matching, and eco-conscious usage trends.

System Design and Technology

• Architecture: 5-layer system (Presentation, Application, Database, ML, Communication) built on modern tools like Next.js, PostgreSQL, and Firebase.

• AI Moderation: Toxic content detection using Xenova/bert-base-google-toxic-roberta with 92.4% accuracy.

• Authentication: Secured through BetterAuth and RBAC (Role-Based Access Control).

• Deployment: Serverless deployment using Vercel ensures scalable and fast performance.

Results & Evaluation

Platform Performance

• AI moderation reduced manual review workload by 87%.

• 850+ concurrent chat connections supported with <400ms latency.

• Zero fraud cases across 1,427 transactions.

User Outcomes

• 94% of rentals completed in 24 hours (vs. 42% in traditional systems).

• Transaction time reduced to 3.7 hours (from 50.4 hours).

• 4.6/5 satisfaction rating.

• 63% of users transitioned from borrowers to lenders within 2 weeks.

Sustainability Impact

• 23kg CO? reduction per student per semester.

• 31% fewer redundant purchases.

• 17% less e-waste generation.

Comparative Advantages

• Faster Discovery: Items found 3.8× quicker than traditional methods.

• Stronger Security: 0% fraud vs. 8.2% on conventional platforms.

• Higher Retention: 84% user retention after 30 days, more than double industry average.

• Peak Time Resilience: Maintains 99.97% uptime, compared to 23% slowdowns on other platforms.

Limitations

• Slightly higher latency for Android users.

• Reduced AI moderation accuracy for non-English content.

• Cold start challenges on new campuses (requires ~50 items listed to gain traction).

Conclusion

CampusHub fundamentally changes how students share resources on campus, solving problems that have frustrated academic communities for years. Where older systems led to wasted resources, slow transactions, and security risks, our platform introduces a smarter way forward. By combining instant messaging, AI content filtering, and modern technical design, we\'ve created a sharing system that actually meets students\' needs. What makes CampusHub special technically comes down to three breakthroughs.First, its modular design ensures both scalability and maintainability, with clearly delineated layers (presentation, application, database, machine learning, and communication) operating cohesively while avoiding the performance bottlenecks characteristic of monolithic systems. Second, the implementation of Firebase Firestore for real-time interactions reduces negotiation times by 93% compared to traditional methods, while the Xenova/bert-base-google-toxic-roberta model maintains 92.4% accuracy in automated content screening. Third, the robust security framework—featuring BetterAuth for RBAC and institutional verification—has proven 100% effective in preventing unauthorized access during testing. Our evaluation reveals significant practical impacts. The platform has reduced redundant purchases by 31% among active users, demonstrating its sustainability value, while the 63% borrower-to-lender conversion rate indicates strong viral adoption. Notably, these outcomes were achieved without compromising system performance, as evidenced by the platform\'s ability to maintain <500ms latency during peak academic periods when handling 850+ concurrent requests. Looking ahead, three strategic development pathways emerge. The integration of blockchain-based smart contracts could further enhance transactional transparency, while a dedicated mobile application would improve accessibility. Additionally, expansion of the AI moderation system to support multilingual content would address the current 7% accuracy gap for non-English submissions. These findings position CampusHub as both an immediate solution and a foundational infrastructure for academic institutions. The platform\'s success in harmonizing technical innovation with community-building principles suggests its potential to become standard campus infrastructure, much like learning management systems have in the digital education space. Future research should explore longitudinal effects on campus sustainability metrics and the platform\'s adaptability to non-academic sharing economies

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Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Sravan Kumar, Nallamothu Manohar, Mohana Vijaya. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.