CarbonDown

Inspiration

Our project aims to address the widespread ignorance of carbon emissions from internet use and to promote environmental awareness through the power of technology. In real life, users pay more attention to environmental issues, but they are less aware of the carbon emissions they generate when using the Internet. At the same time, users lack guidance, do not know how to reduce their own Internet use carbon emissions, and lack feasible emission reduction solutions. In addition, it is difficult for users to quantify their own carbon emissions, unable to know their own emission reduction results, and lack the motivation and sense of reward for environmental protection behavior. In addition, users also lack personalized recommendation functions and cannot obtain customized emission reduction solutions according to their own needs. Finally, there is a lack of opportunities for users to interact and communicate about environmental behavior. We hope that our project will help users raise awareness of the carbon emissions of Internet use and provide them with practical and feasible solutions and support to reduce emissions to drive more people to participate in environmental protection actions. At the same time, through personalized recommendations and interactive communication, we will also increase user participation and satisfaction and further promote the popularization and implementation of environmental protection awareness.

What it does

Our project is called "CarbonDown: A Sustainable Internet for All", and the main goal is to visualize users' carbon emissions and stimulate their environmental awareness through artificial intelligence and digital twin technology. We will design an app called CarbonDown to monitor the carbon emissions of users' Internet data in the background and provide clear data. After the detection is completed, the data will be displayed in a visual way to remind users to reduce carbon emissions. In addition, APP will also combine digital twins and AI technology to generate scenario-based emission reduction alternatives, such as using more energy-efficient applications and surfing the Internet during off-peak hours. In order to increase user participation and fun, we have also introduced an interactive metaverse space. Users can exchange the saved carbon emissions into virtual seeds or eggs, plant virtual forests or raise virtual animals.

How we built it

Our project development process can be divided into several main phases. First, we conducted an in-depth discussion on the project theme, determined the general direction and functional requirements of the project, and carried out a preliminary project proposal design and division of labor. Next, front-end engineers, system architects, and graphic designers start designing user interfaces and developing web front-ends. The project manager is responsible for planning and supervising everyone to complete the corresponding work and write a project text report, and then the system architect conducts a feasibility assessment. Finally, we made the project results into a PPT to visualize our ideas. Our team members are all from different schools with different majors and have their own strengths, such as web front-end development and Procreate graphics, which allows us to carry out in-depth work in different aspects. Not only did we give full play to our due expertise in the field we were originally good at, but we also learned knowledge in a new field.

Challenges we ran into

Challenge 1: Develop a smooth and interactive user interface in a short period of time Solution: Use a low-code platform to quickly design a simple interactive interface Challenge 2: How to realize the visualization of carbon emissions Solution: Learn from some open source strategic management games on GitHub. The carbon emissions saved by users can be exchanged for various endangered animals and plants, and they are placed on their own exclusive islands. Challenge 3: How to build an AI model to recommend the best solution to reduce carbon emissions Solution: In terms of artificial intelligence model construction, use the combination of GAT and Transformer architecture, first use GAT to process the user relationship graph, import the processed data into the Transformer architecture model, and finally generate the best behavior combination

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our proudest achievement is that we have created an intelligent application that can monitor and visualize carbon emissions in real time, and then drive users to reduce carbon emissions. Using AI technology and digital twin technology, we can not only monitor users' carbon emissions in real time, but also provide targeted carbon reduction solutions. At the same time, we have made carbon emission reduction more interesting and interactive through the introduction of the Metaverse. We take great pride in seeing our apps make a real impact on the environment.

What we learned

Through this project, we have a deeper understanding of the role and importance of technology in environmental protection. We learned how to combine different technologies and tools (such as AI, digital twins, metaverse) to solve real problems. We also understand the importance of teamwork, where everyone's expertise and contributions are critical to the success of the project. At the same time, we also see that our efforts can have a positive impact on society, which makes us more convinced of the power of technology.

What's next for CarbonDown

Our next step is to improve and test the product. We need to further improve the user interface, optimize the calculation and visualization of carbon emissions, improve the performance of AI models, etc. We also plan to conduct a series of user tests to ensure that our application can meet the needs and expectations of users. After the product is perfected and tested, we will seek partners and investors to bring our application to the market.

Team Members

Jiayi Chen, Xinyi Shi, Yutong Xu, Jionghao Chen

Built With

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