EcoPython

Inspiration:

I and my group found the accenture coding competition focus to be something very interesting and intriguing in regards to the importance of efficiency in software and tech for reducing emissions. I and my group found this to be inspiring for us as the type of focus this competition is centred in is a narrative very important in today's big tech world. Furthermore, today I and my team mates gained our first on hands experience using python, so we all found today to be an enlightening and inspiring experience.

How we built it:

We were able to construct and implement this code using git as well as python. It was important to focus on the original code we were provided from accenture and analyse it for potential gaps, issues that would be best prune and therefore afford us to restructure the code in a more efficient way to help with emission reduction.

Challenges we ran into:

The initial code had redundant variables for card values, colors, and suits, which could easily be combined into simpler, centralized lists or dictionaries. Removing these redundancies without affecting functionality required careful analysis. The original code contained multiple nested loops, making it difficult to trace the game logic, especially for managing cards between piles. Streamlining these loops while retaining the core game mechanics would have required careful restructuring. For example, the takeTurn method was simplified to include only essential steps, removing repetitive checks and actions and thus reducing overall complexity.

Additionally, as a team we tried so many different versions of code and alternative solutions in terms of reducing the emissions via the game to make sure we were in agreement on which followed the rules of solitaire, such as keeping to the randomness of the sorting method, yet helping to reduce redundancies and memory usage etc.

Accomplishments that we're proud of :

We are proud of ourselves for having been able to take on a new challenge, with little to no prior knowledge in python to completing a meaningful real world problem. We found it rewarding to be able to learn python and git as we engaged with the provided Github repository and info. It was a nice experience to exit our comfort zones and build up your competencies, which is what this hackathon certainly afford you the opportunity to do ( being the main theme this year).

What we learned:

We learned a lot about the importance of git, as well as the syntax and use case of python, in addition to learning how to keep calm to solve a new problem that we have never came across before. Additionally, we were captivated by the real world implications of clean and efficient software on performance and emission size, which is something we hold importance and concern towards.