Clean City - Your Environment Your Health

Inspiration

Clean City was not founded because we felt compelled to support the neighborhood. We saw that dirt was being thrown everywhere from where we were, and one of the reasons we were aware of—and which was subsequently confirmed by our survey—was that most individuals threw dirt carelessly because they were unaware of the whereabouts of trash cans.
We also realized that simply obtaining a trash can to discard dirt is insufficient since when it gets out of control, it causes problems and is harmful. More importantly, we saw the necessity for dirt to be picked up from people's homes so that individuals who might not have the opportunity to walk outside and toss dirt or are unable to throw dirt for other reasons could order dirt through the app. From this point on, we had the bravery to start working on this to help users find trash cans, to inform administrators

The clean city app is made up of two modules, the User and the Admin. The user module With the clean city user app, people will not throw dirt haphazardly since they will be able to find the trash receptacle closest to them. In case they don’t know the location of the thrash can, there is a google location map that helps them out.
Consequently, we will have less illegal dumping and this will go a long way to better the health of those around us as well as care for the climate. The Admin module The admin app comes to signal the city council when the dirt is at 50, 75 and 100% notwithstanding the can track how full each trash can is and when they react to this, we will not have standing dirt in the environment which will make our city cleaner, healthier and it will also profit the climate.
With the admin app also comes the possibility to add an agent who will be in charge of collecting thrash on the user’s request. The agent will have a google location to the address of the user, to ease his movement.

Our solution is both hardware and software. Hardware:
Ultrasonic Sensor: The ultrasonic sensor is used to measure the level of the trash can and based on the level of the dirt in the trash can, it sent the information to the database
NodeMcu Esp8266: NodeMcu Esp8266 is a type of microcontroller which is used in communicating with firebase over the internet and also acts as the controller of all the systems.
jumper Wires: The jumper wires help in connecting the whole system. They are also called connecting wires
Power source 3V supply which is used to power the system. 5) Trash can Use in collecting waste.
Backend:
Sanctum Api Authentication: This provides a featherweight authentication system for SPAs (single-page applications), mobile applications, and simple, token-based APIs.
Spatie Permissions: This package allows you to manage user permissions and roles in a database
MySQL: MySQL creates a database for storing and manipulating data, defining the relationship of each table. user for user requests management and user accounts
Firestore database: for storage of Trash can locations all over the community.
RealTime database: This helps in updating the data from the sensor in real-time or dynamically by sending trash levels to the database.
Frontend : Flutter: This is a framework for developing cross-platform applications. Figma: For the design of the UI
Programing language: Dart for the application C++: for the microcontroller NodeMcuEsp8266

We had lots of issues that we could not completely solve but we hope to in the nearest time some of these issues include:
Space And Sanctum Error: we had a lot of issues when it came to configuring and using a third spatie library for authentication and role management. Trying several sources and getting similar errors was kind of discouraging, but like every developer, each new error gave us hope. Understanding and writing our own microcontroller was another issue, it seemed so abstract when we thought of using a microcontroller and how to connect to the cloud, but with the help of a senior lecturer at school, we came to understand it and we could then move on connecting it to realtime databases on firestore another very pertinent issue was understanding firebase and realtime databases, that was the first time we actually got to learn that and it poses some challenges at the beginning, the good news is, we were able to grab it before the end.

When it comes to environmental health affecting our health, we can say some people don’t really consider this. One of the things we are proud of is the determination to continue this project, to be able to reach the level we have reached as of now. We are proud of it because we know that if we want to change the world we as individuals need to start that change, there are already health challenges. Our own little effort in reducing this factor, especially in Cameroon is important to us. We are also proud of the fact that we have been able to use what we have learned to apply to an actual real-world solution which will go a long way to helping an entire community. Having to collaborate and use several technologies on one solution is also an achievement, despite the diversity in knowledge, unifying it to solve a community problem is an achievement we are all proud of.

So far, we have learned from the conception to the development that we need to encourage ourselves in order to continue. When we look at the rate at which some people appreciate technology and the constraints that we have in a clean city, we need to be courageous to strive forward. When it comes to development, we have learned a lot, not everyone was comfortable with the technologies that we used. In fact, we developed the idea and then we checked out what technologies could be used. We learned new stuff, increased our thinking power, learned to code more, etc. We learned that technology can be implemented in so many things, especially in our Country. We learned through an inspiring week that there are chances and possibilities to showcase our work.

The issue of dumping dirt carelessly is not only in my region so the clean city team hopes to include other regions and towns in the app so that it will be beneficial for everyone, and also for the city council in my community and the world at large. We also hope to use the user app to sensitize the population about health and the environment by some engaging comments or reminders for people to work towards the good of the environment. We also intend to finish all that we have foreseen for our application like the sensitization etc. but lack the time to finish it in this particular sprint. We target the company in charge of sanitation to use this solution but we hope to set up a startup that will be fully in charge of waste management.

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