DineForAll

Inspiration

We wanted to help Kate navigate the college dining hall and find a place to sit. People without visual impairments often do this by scanning the vast array of tables and finding a table where a friend was sitting, or an empty table. Kate, on the other hand, has to hope her friend finds her, or that she is correct about a table being empty. If she makes the wrong choice, very awkward and uncomfortable situations may ensue.

This problem is not specific to people who are blind. The experience of not knowing where to sit in the dining hall is very common, and we wanted to take this opportunity to challenge ourselves and create a solution that would be universal, helping everyone have a better dining hall experience.

What it does

Our system has two parts: one part to allow students to check into a dining hall table, and one to allow individuals to find who is sitting at what tables.

Checking in to tables

Each table in the dining hall will have a tablet open. When students arrive, they can type in their names and whether they want people to sit with them. Then they can enjoy their meal. If they stated that they would be open to eating with others, other people may join them. After they finish eating, they simply press the button on the tablet to indicate as such, and go on with the rest of their day.

Finding tables to sit

If an individual is not sure where to sit, they can log in to the website. There, they will be presented with some tables that they could join, based on the tables that have indicated that they were open to visitors as well as certain preferences they set, as well as a list of empty tables. This way, the individual can scan the list, and make an informed decision on where to sit. This decision would be based on whether they are friends with someone, whether someone seems like a cool person to meet, or whether they want to sit alone.

How we built it

Our web app is built in Flask and uses a PostgreSQL database to store relevant information about the students and where everyone is sitting. We use Heroku to host.

Challenges we ran into

Being a six person team, it was difficult to come to consensus about ideas and to effectively divide work. However, we maintained open lines of communication, were not afraid to ask each other for help, and made sure everyone was on the same page about our ideas.

Additionally, none of us had any extensive experience in Flask, so we were all figuring out how to use it as we went.

Finally, there weren't many snack options that did not involve vast amounts of sugar.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Peacefully dividing up tasks
Letting people rest up if they wanted
Codesigning with Kate
Learning Flask

What we learned

Flask
Codesigning in a short time span
Some of us got a huge refresher in coding
Some of us learned HTML
Talking about our project

What's next for DineForAll

We have a few bugs to iron through, as well as possibly doing some restructuring so that our web app is more robust. We also want to tweak the ways we present the tables.

Ideally, this idea is part of a university system, where data like majors and graduation years are autofilled, and students can check in using an RFID reader on their student ID. If we really wanted to go forward on this, we would find a university partner and work on this system with them.