✨ Zenith Cortex

An AI-powered campus career ecosystem connecting students, recruiters, and mentors.

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🎬 Demo

📺 Watch the full walkthrough on Loom

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🤔 What is Zenith Cortex?

Zenith Cortex is a full-stack platform that brings together three key players in the campus placement ecosystem:

👨‍🎓 Students	👔 Recruiters	👩‍🏫 Mentors
Track achievements & build profile	Find talent with AI-powered filtering	Post opportunities for students
Get AI resume analysis (ATS scoring)	Quiz-based candidate matching	Manage hackathons, workshops, seminars
Take career quizzes with roadmaps	View leaderboard rankings	Guide students through the platform
Compete on department leaderboards	Search by skills & achievements

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⚡ Features

🎯 For Students

• Achievement Portfolio - Add projects, hackathons, certifications, internships with proof uploads
• AI Resume Analyzer - Get ATS score (0-10), pros/cons, improvements, and keyword suggestions powered by Vertex AI
• Career Quiz - 20 questions → AI generates top 5 profession matches with personalized roadmaps (beginner → advanced)
• Leaderboard - Compete with peers, filter by department/branch/year
• Mentor Hub - View upcoming opportunities posted by faculty

🔍 For Recruiters

• Smart Candidate Quiz - Select branches, roles, years, and specific skills
• AI-Powered Matching - Get matched students with their relevant achievements
• Achievement Search - Search across all student achievements by keywords
• Leaderboard Access - View top performers across filters

📢 For Mentors/Faculty

• Post Opportunities - Create hackathons, workshops, seminars, conferences
• Rich Event Details - Add venue, date, time, registration links
• Student Visibility - Posted opportunities appear in student Mentor Hub

🤖 AI-Powered (Vertex AI + Gemini)

• Resume Analysis - Structured JSON output with schema validation
• Career Matching - Profession recommendations with match percentages
• Daily Suggestions - 15 curated tech/career suggestions on student home

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend

• React 18 + Vite
• Tailwind CSS - Pastel gradient aesthetic
• React Router v6 - Role-based routing
• Axios - API calls
• react-dropzone - Resume upload

Backend

• Express.js 5
• LowDB - JSON file database (lightweight, no setup)
• Multer - File uploads
• pdf-parse & mammoth - Resume text extraction (PDF/DOCX)
• JWT - Authentication ready

AI/Cloud

• Google Vertex AI - Gemini 2.0 Flash
• Structured JSON Output - Schema-enforced responses
• Google Cloud Platform - Deployment ready

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📁 Project Structure

zenith-cortex/
├── backend/
│   ├── routes/
│   │   ├── auth.js          # Login (student/recruiter/mentor)
│   │   ├── achievements.js  # CRUD achievements
│   │   ├── resume.js        # AI resume analysis
│   │   ├── quiz.js          # Student career quiz
│   │   ├── recquiz.js       # Recruiter matching quiz
│   │   ├── leaderboard.js   # Filtered rankings
│   │   ├── opportunities.js # Mentor posts
│   │   ├── search.js        # Achievement search
│   │   └── home.js          # AI daily suggestions
│   ├── utils/
│   │   ├── vertex.js        # Vertex AI wrapper
│   │   └── db.js            # LowDB setup
│   ├── db.json              # Database file
│   └── server.js            # Express app
│
├── frontend/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── pages/
│   │   │   ├── Home.jsx           # Student dashboard
│   │   │   ├── Profile.jsx        # Achievement management
│   │   │   ├── Resume.jsx         # AI resume analyzer
│   │   │   ├── Quiz.jsx           # Career quiz
│   │   │   ├── Leaderboard.jsx    # Rankings
│   │   │   ├── MentorHub.jsx      # View opportunities
│   │   │   ├── RecHome.jsx        # Recruiter dashboard
│   │   │   ├── RecQuiz.jsx        # Candidate matching
│   │   │   ├── MentorHome.jsx     # Mentor dashboard
│   │   │   └── MentorOpportunities.jsx
│   │   ├── components/
│   │   │   ├── Navbar.jsx         # Search bar
│   │   │   └── Sidebar.jsx        # Role-based menu
│   │   ├── context/
│   │   │   └── AuthContext.jsx    # Auth state
│   │   └── data/
│   │       ├── quiz.questions.json
│   │       └── rec.questions.json
│   └── index.html

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Google Cloud account with Vertex AI enabled

1. Clone & Install

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/zenith-cortex.git
cd zenith-cortex

# Backend
cd backend
npm install

# Frontend
cd ../frontend
npm install

2. Environment Setup

Create backend/.env:

PORT=5000
GOOGLE_PROJECT=your-gcp-project-id
GOOGLE_LOCATION=us-central1
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=./vertex-key.json

Add your GCP service account key as backend/vertex-key.json

3. Run Development

# Terminal 1 - Backend
cd backend
npm run dev

# Terminal 2 - Frontend
cd frontend
npm run dev

4. Test Logins

Role	Username	Password
Student	student1	pass123
Recruiter	recruiter1	pass123
Mentor	mentor1	mentor123

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📸 Architecture thinking

Click to expand

Student Dashboard

AI-generated daily suggestions with pastel card design

Resume Analyzer

Upload PDF/DOCX → Get ATS score with detailed feedback

Career Quiz Results

Top profession matches with personalized roadmaps

Recruiter Matching

Filter students by branch, year, skills → See matched achievements

Leaderboard

Dense ranking with department/branch/year filters

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🎨 Design Philosophy

• Pastel Gradients - Soft pinks, purples, blues, greens
• Card-based UI - Clean, scannable information
• Role-aware Navigation - Different sidebar menus per user type
• Mobile Responsive - Works on all screen sizes

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🔮 Future Scope

• Email notifications for new opportunities
• Student-recruiter messaging
• Achievement verification by mentors
• Integration with LinkedIn
• Export resume analysis as PDF
• Real-time leaderboard updates

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🙌 Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! For major changes, please open an issue first.

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Built with 💜 by Harpreet Kaur