Ecosphere

Cascade - Gemini Riples
Ocean Depth - Cascade
Playing Little Planet Life
Questionaire
Game Page
Home Page
Python Coding
JavaScript Coding

Inspiration

Our idea for Ecosphere originated from our summer experience at TRAILS AI @ UMD. We wanted to incorporate machine-learning and AI into a project that is on theme with 'Dare to Dive' Annie had the idea of a cascade through the layer of the earth. We had the idea of a questionnaire based on your life-style and decided to make Ecosphere a website about being environmentally conscious.

General Inspiration: We conceived Ecosphere during our Thursday pre-Hackathon meeting, centering on how lifestyle choices shape the environment from atmosphere to ocean floor. We planned Saturday’s schedule and Sunday’s demo process. In brainstorming, we resolved our website would match the theme and showcase our HTML and CSS skills. We aimed to use the Gemini API key, a tool we learned in TRAILS over the summer. Ultimately, we focused on how pollution and personal decisions affect the ocean.

Questionnaire (Samia Saeed and Mahidha Achanta): To highlight how lifestyle choices affect the ocean, we designed the questionnaire to provide users with personalized feedback on their own actions, rather than using generic examples. We based our approach on the Ecological Footprint Calculator, tailoring it to our specific focus.

Cascade Inspo (Annie Xu): When I was in elementary school. I loved playing on Neal.fun, and I really liked the images and backgrounds of the Space Elevator game. So when I heard the theme was ocean-related, I immediately thought of the Space Elevator game. So I thought we should include a cascade of the layers of the ocean.

BitLife Inspo (Mahidha Achanta): As a kinesthetic learner, I understand concepts more clearly by practicing them multiple times. It is crucial for the users to be able to understand the underlying message from our website, which can easily be conveyed when they are engaging in some form of kinesthetic learning. BitLife is a game that teaches the players the way of life, through taking decisions based on fake scenarios and seeing the impact their decisions play on their character’s life. This game ensures that users will be taking decisions based on the fake scenarios and inform them how their decision played an impact on the environment through an impact score.This can allow a user to realize that they should avoid these kinds of actions in their real life to avoid creating a bigger negative impact.

What it does

Our website asks user 12 dynamic questions about their life-style. These question then diagnose their environmental behavoir. We implement an AI to create 'ripple effect' on how your choice effects the environment. Then you'll go through a cascade of the layers of the atmosphere to the ocean and each specific effect. Then you can play a mini life simulation, called Little Planet Life, which will let you make decisions to become more environmentally conscious. You can evaluate your decision through a score out fo 50, where higher scores mean less environmentally conscious and lower scores are safer for the environment.

How we built it

We first linked our Github accounts with each other in a repository for collaboration. Then we created the 4 HTML pages: a home page, questionnaire, cascade of the environment, and the game page. Later we coded everything into Python and Flask to add interactivity to the static pages. Some parts were also incorporated using PHP and JavaScript. Last but not least, we added the Gemini API key and encoded it so that the website creates unique scenarios and 'ripple' effects. We also used some canvas assets to make the website look visually appealing. We would also like to acknowledge the use of AI to help us debug problems and fix minor changes that we couldn't.

Challenges we ran into

One big challenge we ran into was with incorporating the Bit-Life game. We originally coded it in JavaScript but due to server connecting issues, we later changed it to Python and Flask. The addition of the game made our application more dynamic. Another issue was with operating the Gemini API key on multiple devices, which we later resolved through server identification.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of having a fully functional website by the deadline, although we only had around 10 active hours of programming. We are all super happy with the final outcome of our project and the work we did to finish it.

What we learned

We learned how to use AI not only to help write code, but AI to be used in applications and websites. The new concept of using API's and machine learning in website applications expanded our skill set and ability to create new and dynamic applications that can use AI for the better.

What's next for Ecosphere

In the future, we plan to incorporate more animation and sea-themed assets along with changing the interface of the LittlePlanetLife game to be more coherent with the BitLife game UI and style. We also have plans to incorporate a financial application to our website, having the AI create a personalized financial plan that balances economy, personal needs, and environmental needs. Once everything is developed, we plan to put our website on a public domain and market it to scientists and environmentalists, which could be helpful in aiding their research or providing data for their research.

Built With

Submitted to

Technica 2026

Created by

I worked on the Gemini API key, as well as connecting the Flask to Python. I later also edited the game portion from JavaScript to Python for flexibility. Most of the debugging I fixed throughout the day.

Samia Saeed
I worked on the HTML, CSS, and UI portions of the website. I help develop the first three pages of our websites. I came up with the idea of a cascade of the atmosphere and the ocean and using the Gemini API keys to give personalized suggestions on how their lifestyle choices effect the different layers of the atmosphere and the ocean.

Annie Xu
I worked on the UI for the website and also the html part of the program.

Rishitha Achanta
I worked on developing the Python and JavaScript portions of the website. I developed the BitLife-inspired game and incorporated Gemini API keys in Python to create the personalized scenarios and ripple scores.

Mahidha Achanta