Kronakon

• 

  Meet and Greet!

Inspiration

I realized that we have social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter however we really don't have social media that captures the spontaneous moments during your day. Whether it is a dance off, a pickup basketball game, a party on Greek Row, or a hackathon like this, people may want bigger turnouts for events like those however some people may not be aware of the events that are taking place around them. Likewise, people who host events may not know who is interested in their events. Not only can this application help fix this disconnect, it is also a form of social media that encourages real life interaction.

What it does

This is an Android application that helps students connect with the events that are going on around them. The main interfaces are the map and the live feed of posts. On the map, students can walk anywhere on campus and look at a map which has pins that correspond to different events. Examples of events are pickup games, parties, study sessions, etc. Users can then click the pin and click 'yes' to show that they are interested in going to the event. On the live feed of posts, users can see the details of the event and also show that they are interested. Once they are at the event, they can also post pictures, videos and descriptions of the event for other users to see. This is great especially for events like parties on Thursday nights, if people want to see which parties are lively and seem like fun. The application also allows users to send private messages to other users and add profile pictures. There is also a score feature based on how many posts a user makes.

How I built it

I built the application using Eclipse for Android applications. I used the Google Maps API for the map. I ran the application on a Samsung Galaxy S. Data was stored in Microsoft Azure and Parse.

Challenges I ran into

Some challenges I ran into were that there was a lot of code so there were a lot of debugging issues. Also, there were some data storage issues as a lot of data is being saved and retrieved from online hosting.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I am proud that I was able to finish the application, and I think that it is something that I can try to bring to the University of Washington. It took a lot of work to finish so I am proud that I was able to stick with it.

What I learned

I learned that programming is both fun and stressful at the same time. However, just like anything else, it is important to just stick with what you are trying to do, and you will be able to finish what you set out to do.

What's next for Kronakon

I will try to improve on this application and try to get it to the level of a Facebook or Instagram application, in terms of design and capabilities.Once I get the application finalized and compatible for Android, Windows, and Apple devices, I will try to target a specific community for this application, and that community is Greek Row. I just signed Zeta Beta Tau last quarter and I think this is the best place to start because many events take place in this area. Once I can get a solid group of users, I am hoping to get the application to all parts of campus. There are so many ways to expand on the user group for the application; for example, restaurant owners who want people to know that they are having their weekly special for a discounted price, could post their event on the app. People in the library who want to have bigger study groups can post on the application. Stores who are having discounts on their merchandise can even post on the app. All in all, there are high hopes for the future of Kronakon and hopefully reality will meet expectation!

Built With

• android
• eclipse
• java