Dori: Grid Planning and Coordination

Inspiration

Upon reading on the circumstances of the GridLock Challenge, we were shocked to learn about the lack of knowledge between power grid companies despite the vast amount of critical resources and labor required for them. The necessity for location-based conflict resolution inspired us to create a dynamic map interface where companies could actually see the physical overlap and collaborate between themselves.

What it does

Dori utilizes an AI agent to read and standardize company data provided in official PDF documentation. It then automatically compares geographic and timeline overlap between planned projects to locate conflicts, opening up possibilities for companies to reach out and collaborate. The app further implements an account log in and registration system with built-in verification, which provides companies the ability to add custom projects to share data between themselves.

How we built it

Frontend: Responsive user-interface using React and TypeScript.
Backend: Node.js and Express.js handle API routing, data validation, and overlap-detection logic.
Database: PostgreSQL relational database assures the storing of user credentials and distributes server requests of multiple users.
Security: JSON Web Tokens and bcrypt password hashing for strict and scalable security requirements.
Deployment/Environment: Docker ensures a unified development environment across operating systems.

Challenges we ran into

We faced the hurdle of configuring the AI agent to consistently standardize PDF project data, given that our categories were much stricter than the broad descriptions used. We also struggled configuring the Docker environment, mainly with trouble-shooting missing executables.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Transitioned our database from temporary in-memory arrays to a more robust and structured PostgreSQL database with secure network pooling.
Integrated account system with secure log in and registration features.
Project overlap priority rankings based on proximity.

What we learned

This project was an opportunity for us to become more acquainted with JavaScript, a language we were mainly unfamiliar with. It expanded our knowledge on creating full stack applications, structuring REST APIs, and managing secure account information via methods like password hashing.

What's next for Dori: Grid Planning and Coordination

In the future we plan to implement AI web scraping to integrate public project data from a variety of sources. We also want to further focus on the communication elements in the app by including direct messaging between companies and notifications for new colliding projects and collaboration requests