CAN-JAM

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  CAN-JAM

Inspiration

In today's unforgiving world, danger is around every corner. Whether it's violent weather, divisive politics, an unpredictable economy, or dangerous plague outbreaks (like the Coronavirus, the deadly disease of our time), it has become more crucial than ever to connect to the information that keeps humanity aware of these evolving dangers.

Unfortunately, this information is not easy to obtain. To keep up with upcoming and evolving threats, an unreasonably large amount of sources have to be sifted through. This means that the numbers and statistics that can save lives are unreachable for many. Until now.

What it does

CAN-JAM, which is short for Crisis Assessment of New Jersey for Alerts and Monitoring, is a brand new application that aggregates a wide variety of crucial sources to help anyone in New Jersey stay safe and aware of upcoming threats nearby and globally. From weather to geopolitics to economics and beyond, CAN-JAM is a must-have application for anybody in the Garden State that wants to keep up on what dangers can be coming.

CAN-JAM only uses reliable, updated sources like NOAA, the United Nations, Reuters, CNN, and The New York Times to make sure that information presented is always factual, relevant, and trustworthy.

The DEFCON Level and the current weather always stay at the top, and the lower portion automatically revolves around a large group of tabs, each with relevant, modern information, which includes: -Radar -Alerts -Air Quality -Storm Prediction -Drought Monitor -Hurricane Monitor -Flood Monitor -Earthquake Monitor -Tornado Monitor -Geopolitics Monitor -United Nations News -Capital News -Radiation Monitor -Finance News -Major Markets -Precious Metals -Top 50 stocks -Shanghai Stock Exchange -Japan Stock Exchange -London Stock Exchange -Swiss Stock Exchange -German Stock Exchange -EU Stock Exchange -COVID-19 Map (Coronavirus)

How it was built

The entire app was built with the Visual Basic .NET programming language. PictureBox and WebBrowser tools are used within a TabControl to revolve around automatically downloaded information from the Internet. A Timer control revolves around the information, allowing for hands-free access to the data stored within.

Challenges ran into

Unfortunately, with the ever-present danger of misinformation plaguing the Internet, it was challenging finding accurate, reliable sources for each tab of information. In addition, it was hard choosing websites that were compatible with the WebBrowser tool in the Visual Basic .NET language.

Proud accomplishments

The development of a robust, powerful application with a typically overlooked programming language was quite incredible. In addition, CAN-JAM's usage has the capability to save lives, which is certainly something to be prideful of.

What was learned

Developing CAN-JAM meant that many skills were learned. The usage of many tools in Visual Basic were learned, like the usage of the Timer and the TabControl. The creation of the app involved extensive research and workarounds to make the application work

What's next for CAN-JAM

A possible rewrite of the application in a different programming language is possible, allowing CAN-JAM to run on Windows as well as Mac, without the need of Boot Camp Assistant. This cross platform compatibility would make CAN-JAM accessible to even more people, meaning that anyone, regardless of their computer of choice, can stay up to date on the threats that affect New Jersey and the world.

Built With

• visual-basic-net