CaneSustain

CaneSustain: Empowering UMiami Students to Go Green, Earn Points, and Get Rewarded!

Comment

About CaneSustain

Inspiration

My teammate and I's high school AP Environmental teacher was big on sustainability. Like really big. She would always be ranting and raving about CAFOS, heat islands, forever chemicals etc. Instead of sitting there, reading off a powerpoint and lecturing for 75 minutes, our teacher took it upon herself to make sure that we not only learned the material, but we also LIVED the material. We built vertical gardens, conducted research for NASA, and spoke to traveling keynote speakers from around the globe. This constant notion of sustainability was constantly lingering in the back of our heads. With this in mind, the University of Miami is always pushing for students to create a sense of unity amongst themselves. As such, CaneSusatain seemed like the perfect cross-section to us.

What it does

It allows students to post pictures of themselves picking up trash, turning off classroom lights, or eating sustainably. Each post that the student uploads to the website can earn them one point. Students can rack up points and be able to redeem prizes such as merch or dining dollars. But the main goal is to help make the campus more sustainable in a fun and eenjoyable way. This website is for students not only at the University of Miami, but any University in general.

How we built it

We built it using the Python framework, Django. We deployed it on Render.com because it is free and reliable. Also, we bought a domain from GoDaddy registry and made the render site redirect traffic to it.

Challenges we ran into

Honestly, the hardest part was creating the structure chart for the website because we are both experienced in full-stack development. After we organized our workflow, building the website was fairly simple since "the design of the project is the hardest part, and coding is easy" as my professor Hien Ngyuen likes to say.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Connecting the front-end to the back-end
  • Creating a platform that incentivizes sustainable actions
  • Overcoming the challenge of organizing our workflow
  • Of course, the catchy name

What we learned

We learned about the amazing intersection of technology and sustainability. By using our website, the campus can not only save money, but the world can be more clean.

What's next for CaneSustain

We will focus on increasing user engagement, and also explore partnerships with university departments, student orgs, and local businesses to enhance our incentivizes. We will also develop educational content and resources on sustainability topics in our website. If the campus sponsors us, we will then host campaigns, talks, and competitions.

Share this project:

Updates