Iron Skillet

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Inspiration

We found that military diets are high in energy and macronutrients, which is needed for the intense physical nature of the military. However, the amount of rigor and physical activity in civilian life is significantly lower, and proportionately, the amount of calories and other nutrients needed is also much lower. Because the gap between diets is so large, it is important for veterans to gradually decrease their amount of nutrition because a harsh jump in nutrition or no change at all can be extremely detrimental. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7146105/)

What it does

Iron Skillet caters to the needs of veterans who are adjusting to a civilian diet from an intense military diet. By first collecting data from the user about their diet type, allergens, age, gender, starting military diet, goal diet and budget, we create a plan for the user to gradually decrease their calorie count to the end goal over the course of many weeks, while making sure that they have a cost-friendly and well-balanced diet. Through a user friendly and informative UI, the user is able to see their goal number of calories for the day, which decreases by 200 every week. We give the user recipe suggestions for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to fulfill their nutritional needs for the day and take into account their daily budget for food.

How we built it

We built the UI using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Bootstrap. We built the backend with Node.Js and MongoDb by creating a series of HTTP endpoints that can access the food nutrition and recipe information. By connecting the backend and frontend using these endpoints, we were able to add a variety of features, including data filtering, budget filtering, and nutrition counting.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into problems trying to use React Native make this application cross-platform as a website and as iOS and Android applications. Because of the time limitations of this hackathon, we decided that it was better to create a fully-functional website that is designed with mobile devices in mind.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As college students, we’re really proud of the research that we did to really understand and empathize with the needs of our audience, veterans, by taking into account their personal needs like budget, on top of their overall well-being through diet.

What we learned

Technology wise, we learned a lot about how to integrate the backend HTTP endpoints to the frontend and how to debug various problems that may come with it.

Strategy-wise we learned how useful prior experience can be. Given the brief duration of the hackathon, we eventually found it most beneficial to stick with our prior skills rather than experimenting with something new.

Through this challenge topic and our research, we definitely learned more about the daily lives of veterans and some challenges they face in it.

What's next for Iron Skillet

Our next steps would be to revisit another mobile framework to create a truly mobile, cross-platform application in the future. We originally envisioned a mobile app because we expected most users would favor the convenience and portability of one.