CoZzmos Slides

Inspiration

As current high school juniors growing up in the competitive environment fostered by the Bay Area, we often witness our peers buried under intense workloads at the expense of their well-being. The core problem we observed is that students continuously work despite experiencing hidden cognitive fatigue. Because this fatigue is invisible, it is easy to ignore until burnout sets in. Our goal with CoZzmos was to make cognitive tiredness visible and understandable while being scientifically accurate. This is helpful in creating a space where students can check in with themselves, test their active mental focus, and engage in meaningful personal reflection.

What it does

Our web-app utilizes psychological tests to analyze the user's cognitive fatigue at a given moment. Based on this gamified quiz, it gives their performance results on those quizzes and gives them a summary as well as advice for what they should be doing. It does not give medical advice but simply informs of fatigue.

How we built it

CoZzmos was engineered using a core web development stack consisting of HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript, styled entirely around an immersive, interactive starry night and constellation layout. The application evaluates user performance through four research-inspired cognitive tasks: PVT (attentiveness), AX-CPT (cognitive control), Stroop Test (selective attention), and N-back Test(working memory capacity).

Challenges we ran into

We worked on using timers for the different tests and struggled to save the data in local storage. We also had to deal with cleanup phases for some of the data like for the first test of the N-back test. We also struggled to create try and catch exceptions and other safeguards for errors, like if the user clicked early before the stimulus appeared. There was also issues with if the user clicked too many times. For some of the issues we were able test repeatedly and try out different code variations, while others required the use of AI code assistance to fix broken code.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of building a functioning web app that uses scientifically tested psychology tests to reinforce the results we give. It was satisfying to create a game to identify a key issue emerging for high schoolers who struggle with heavy workloads. We are also proud of connecting it to the unique prompt of constellations, by creating a unique web design with starry backgrounds and engaging aesthetics. Our "Focus Constellation" created a connection with the theme while emphasizing a key point that all these different cognitive functions are ultimately connected. We are also proud of making these tests fit into a shorter time frame to make them more usale. Overall, we are proud of creating a tool with real impact that convey important information to high schoolers today and for future generations.

What we learned

Building CoZzmos taught us a great deal about cognitive science and web design. We learned how to use psychological tests and combine them with user-friendly workflows. On the technical side, we learned JavaScript skills, timing control, and making efficient code while storing data in local storage. We also worked on continuously improving our code using tests, while refining the UI/UX design to support user needs.

What's next for CoZzmos

The next steps for CoZzmos involve making it track other factors like sleep caffeine, and stress that impact cognitive scores other than regular fatigue. We may also unlock new "galaxies" that offer new features to improve mental health and cognitive strength. We also think it would be helpful to allow users to save data for extended periods of time so that they can see the patterns.