Campus

Inspiration

We can all relate to having wanted to participate in various events on campus, learn more about the opportunities our universities offer, and be able to feel like part of the communities that we live in two to three thirds of the year. As a result, Campus came to life. We've decided that an accessible and easy to use app with text message notifications would be a perfect way to keep the student body connected.

What it does

Our app allows users to drop markers on the map in the general area of the university that one subscribes to which includes a small description of the event as well as the specific location for people to access these events. The map we were able to create using the Google Map API. As well, users can choose to subscribe to notifications which entail the MessageBird API to send automatic SMS notifications as new events are being popped up on campus.Furthermore, our app would also track Data Analytics to add hidden tags to any event that one creates so that if a user is seeking out events on campus, they can have the option to filter the nature of these events (whether it's food related, haircut related, sports, fundraising, etc.). More than this, the data analysis allows the Campus app to keep track of what certain students specifically like and can therefore suggest certain events tailored to the type of events that they like more.

How we built it

Our process included a lot of use of APIs which we combined on the Android Studio platform to create the back-end portion of our application. We also were able to use invision and other design platforms to create templates and prototypes of what the app might look like in the end. We were able to take a lot of information from the API workshop and the Python workshop really helped us getting into the mindset to get ready to code. We also used online tutorials and the like in order to follow along how to install certain APIs and put them to use.

Challenges we ran into

As we are all inexperienced hackers, we did run into certain challenges. One of the challenges we ran into was being able to properly download the Google Maps API and then link it to the Android Studio platform in such a way that outputs our map as we desired. We got the help of some amazing mentors from Deloitte who are experts in Android Studio and JavaScript.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are incredibly proud of our hack and the way that we were able to start seeing our ideas come to life. While we were fiddling with our Google Maps API, when we were finally able to see the map open on the virtual Android phone on our screens, we were sitting at the edges of our seats at how our ideas were becoming reality.

What we learned

This hackathon was a huge learning curve for all three of us, as none of us come from a strong background in coding. We learned about APIs (everything from what they are, to how we can apply them). We learned how to work as a team and how to apply Agile methodology to our work but we also learned how to take initiative when it came to working towards learning something new. As a team, we were able to navigate the new world of Android Studio and APIs.

What's next for Campus

Campus, unfortunately, is an almost hack. Our implementation wasn't sought out to the end but we're eager to see how to can continue to combine our various pieces together and continue to develop this idea further by adding more details and features.

Built With

• android-studio
• apis
• data-analytics
• google-maps
• invision
• javascript
• messagebird
• messengerbird
• stdlib