EduSound

Subject main page
Input song page
Notes and playlist page

Inspiration

Many studies relating to both memory and music have been done, where the type of music you listen to while studying has a positive impact on your memory. In addition, the studies show that if you relate a type of music or certain song to a piece of information you learned, this can make it easier for you to recall later on. This association of your favorite songs with a subject in school can help make studying more enjoyable. Furthermore, EduSound has note-taking capabilities in order to help organize the notes more easily. Thus, here at EduSound, we created this web app to help students study and increase productivity by connecting the joy of listening to music with education.

What it does

EduSound has an interactive interface that allows users to add subjects within the website, as well as make notes and playlists corresponding with those subjects. These features allow users to listen to music while studying for classes, improving study habits and memory retention by associating specific tracks with certain subjects. The soothing color scheme also allows users to relax while studying, reducing stress and anxiety for future assignments.

How we built it

To build EduSound, we utilized Google App Engine along with the Google Cloud Database to store data. We used HTML, CSS, and Javascript to design the layout and behavior of the web pages, and Python to interact with the database, storing and retrieving data associated with each user account. To pass information into the HTML pages, we used Jinja templating in our code. In addition, we employed the Google account login for our login system. We used Atom as our text editor, and hosted the app on a local server to test it. To share code, we utilized Git and Github while implementing the project.

Challenges we ran into

We had troubleshooting issues with Google App Engine development server. We also initially had some difficulty interacting with the database and editing our HTML templates. Specifically, when deleting notes and songs, we learned how to get data from the database in order to remove the correct object from the interface. However, through these challenges, our team was able to learn even more and get a better idea of the real world of app development and troubleshooting.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were able to successfully put together a functional web app that can help students better retain study information, organize notes, and increase productivity. With little experience using APIs and datastore, we are proud that we were able to implement a Google user login API and succeed in utilizing the Google Cloud Database.

What we learned

As our team overall had less experience in web app development, in creating EduSound, we were able to learn a lot more about the design process as well as the technical implementation. Working in a team is an important part of software design, and throughout the project, our team developed our cooperation skills, especially in brainstorming the initial idea for EduSound. In addition, while implementing the web application, we learned to store data from the Google Cloud Database and use it in our program to personalize the user experience. Throughout the hackathon, we gained useful skills in app development through the various workshops as well, as we experimented in different platforms. Also, the mentors and resources available allowed us to learn more about the world of software development and what opportunities are available to do what we truly enjoy.

What's next for EduSound

A function we wanted to implement but didn’t have enough time to do was a Spotify API. Currently, EduSound allows the user to input songs with links but cannot play music through Spotify within the app. Our goal is to be able to play the songs within the webapp as well as make playlists for each subject within Spotify. Additionally, in the future we want to implement a Google Cloud Vision API. Our web app currently allows for users to input their notes in text form. With a Google Cloud Vision API, EduSound would be able to pull the text out of an inputted image and upload it onto one of its cards to store notes without having to type it out.