BinGo

Team BinGo

Heeyun Jeon (Team leader, Backend developer) Ye Won Chang (Backend developer) Seulki Choi (Frontend developer) Yujeong Chang (Designer & Project manager) Dongchan Kim (Backend developer)

Inspiration

The inspiration for our app emerged from a common urban dilemma: the struggle to find a place to dispose of trash while on the go. Many of us have faced the frustration of enjoying a drink or snack in public, only to be left searching for a nearby trash bin.

How we built it & What it does

Our "Trash Bin Location" app addresses this issue by helping users easily locate trash bins, simplifying waste disposal and contributing to a cleaner environment. In addition to this core feature, we noticed that finding public restrooms can be equally challenging, especially in unfamiliar areas. To enhance user convenience, we included a feature to help locate public toilets.

Our app also tackles the problem of cigarette littering, which often leads to unsightly streets and environmental hazards. To address this, we incorporated a feature to find designated smoking areas, aiming to reduce litter, prevent potential fire hazards, and mitigate the effects of passive smoking. By offering these features, our app not only addresses practical needs but also supports broader environmental and public health goals, encouraging responsible behavior and promoting a cleaner, safer community for all.

Challenges we ran inFind your Bin and Go!

During the project, we learned valuable lessons about balancing work and personal well-being, as managing sleep became a challenge. This experience underscored the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance to avoid burnout and ensure sustained productivity. We also discovered the necessity of effective time management and the benefits of regular breaks to keep our team focused and energized.

Technically, dealing with outdated API data of cigarette litter and the universality of the API data taught us the importance of staying current with third-party integrations and implementing robust data validation strategies. This experience improved our ability to manage and adapt to data-related issues, enhancing the reliability of our application. Additionally, working with inexperienced frameworks pushed us to explore new technologies and develop creative solutions, broadening our technical skill set and problem-solving abilities.

On the teamwork front, we found that collaboration was key to overcoming obstacles. When we encountered challenges, having a teammate review our code often provided a fresh perspective that led to quick fixes. This insight highlighted the value of leveraging diverse viewpoints and working together to resolve issues efficiently, reinforcing the importance of effective communication and collaboration within the team.

What we learned

We fortunately had a well-balanced group of front and back-end developers. Following the agile methodology, we went through the initial planning stage together. Bouncing off ideas about user interactions and frameworks, we first jotted down a broad spec for front and back-end development and went into designing and developing. However, we would like to note that our group was the only one that couldn't actually start coding until 3 p.m., which was 3 hours past the official beginning of the Seoul Tech Impact. Although it felt like a disadvantage at the time, we came to realize that it was valuable time to have the planning set in detail – more than what we had originally intended. During the testing stage, front and back-end teams came together and deployed to vercel.app. After reviewing the deployment together, we gave honest feedback, sometimes brutal. Based on the feedback, we split off again into the designing and developing process. After about 3 cycles, the hackathon came to an end. Tech Stack: Front - Next.js, CSS, Vercel Back - OpenAPI, JavaScript

What's next for BinGo

Seoul Tech Impact 2024 was the first ever hackathon for four out of five of us. However, we realized that we all had such innate passion for the hackathon that some of us didn't even notice the dawn breaking. During the planning stage, we actually discussed additional features that we would love to work on in the future. The most essential feature is to expand upon the game aspect of BinGo and actually incentivize the users by giving points when they verify that they have actually used the recycling bin.

Built With

• css
• javascript
• nextjs
• node.js
• openapi
• vercel