Inspiration
We the creators actively participate in environmental organizations and extracurricular activities where we have begun to branch off and take initiatives to educate youth about their impact on the environment surrounding them. The two of us have witnessed a large amount of youth who lack environmental awareness and how a sustainable environment is the key to a sustainable future. Wanting to start a NGO of our own, we decided to attend Ellehacks, our first hackathon ever, to broaden our horizons and slowly enter the world of programming. Here, we put our ideas forward and quickly worked to make it into a reality. We decided to launch an app that appealed to Generation Z, where they would be able to learn from their past actions and understand their impact on the environment. This new app is called EcoTracks.
What it does
EcoTracker is an IOS application that records waste disposal, water consumption and transportation methods used by individuals. This data is collected over the span of one month, where it is then transferred to a eye catching and simple infograph that easily allows individual to observe their decisions regarding the 3 categories and to understand their habits. With this application, our goal is to keep youth engaged and educated on their environmental impacts using appealing tools and strategies like technology with visual appeal. One of the biggest goals of this product launch is to promote self-growth and reflection within users, which is why the infographics are so important. Unlike traditional reports, our visuals allow individuals to solely observe their actions which encourages self reflections shortly after, with the help of visuals and text.
How we built it
Bouncing between Visual Basics, Android Studio, and InVision, we ultimately decided to create a simple sample interface and website that can showcase our ideas and goals. This due to the fact that we are complete beginners to the realms of coding and programming. Although we have numerous ideas, we lack the tools to express them. Currently, our team has developed a website under Weebly, where our product is introduced along with mission statements, demos and additional information. To easily explain what our app does and how easy it really is, we inserted pictures of our application to showcase it’s simplicity and demonstrate the simple steps it takes to record your actions within a month. Our website includes the interface of EcoTracks and infographs that are available for download, once a user registers for EcoTracks.
Challenges we ran into
- Regrets As complete beginners to coding/hacking, we entered ElleHacks in order to try it out. Once we arrived we felt nervous and doubted our abilities as we constantly compared ourselves to others who were far more advanced and knowledgeable when it came to Hackathons, ultimately questioning ourselves as to why we even attended this event. We overcame this conflict once we realized we could not set such high expectations for ourselves, because we understood we could only work to our best capabilities. Our first Hackathon soon became warming and FUN as we began brainstorming ideas for the TD Challenge!
- Programming Language The two of us had little experience when it came to programming. Although we were enrolled in our grade 10 Computer Science class, we forgot the basics of coding and were forced to stick to Visual Basics as that was the only program we were taught. Being unfamiliar to programming languages put us at a disadvantage, as we constantly searched for mentors, who could only help us with so much. We were advised to start with something smaller compared to developing an iOS application because of our low skill level when it came to coding. We still wanted to create this app, which is why we resorted to creating interfaces and a website instead, that could show judges our dreams for EcoTracks, and allow them to visually understand our ideas. This was our best bet as we could not afford to lose time and lacked the knowledge to create a working interactive prototype.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
With our limited knowledge, our creative juices really came in handy during this Hackathon! Being able to come up with a solid plan than supported our beliefs and goals is something we are very proud of. Due to the fact that both of us enjoyed this app idea, excitement filled our area every time we thought of an even better idea than before. We were able to work in harmony and have fun while coming up with more features for our application! Also, having a solid plan, website and interface present during our FIRST hackathon is something we cannot stop smiling about. We felt a rush of success and accomplishment once we finished developing our ideas, because we were surprised our lack of knowledge could allow us to soar and create a product we are confident and proud of. Although there is a lot of room for improvement, our team believes we did our best and tried our hardest to showcase our ideas visually. During this hackathon, the two of us also improved some skills. We definitely learned to be patient with one another and listen to other opinions. This was essential as we were working as a team which is why we are proud that as friends and partners, we were able to produce this product.
What we learned
We learned to be more ambitious and try out new things despite little knowledge of the topic in the first place! During this weekend, we both learned that a person is never too old to begin learning something they have a passion towards. Hackathons is truly about taking risks and trying out different things. One can never succeed if they never try to begin with. We are really proud that we at least attempted to code. Although we failed, we did not give up and decided to try what we could to the best of our abilities. What is really important for self-growth is that we strive towards improvement We cannot let our inabilities hinder ourselves from our end goal. We were not able to code this hackathon, but perhaps next hackathon we can code a basic application. Additionally, we learned the importance of teamwork. All real-life IT teams contain numerous individuals, all with different educational and experiential backgrounds. They have to work together to create projects for companies. Although our team consisted of only 2 individuals, we truly valued each other’s opinions and thoughts and we both understand how difficult it might have been to work alone. Overall, we learned various factors and we believe they all lead to self-growth and self-improvement.
What's next for EcoTracks
In the future, we hope to make EcoTracks a reality by actually developing a working, functional IOS application. We plan to do this by attending coding classes, and self-teaching ourselves useful programming languages like java and html. Afterwards, we can potentially launch a beta version of our app to receive user feedback and improve our interface. We can also collect feedback through surveys. Additionally, we want to add a feature that tracks a user’s daily steps and include scoreboards where users compete with friends to challenge each other on weekly step competitions. This will not only promote an environmentally friendly alternative, but it will also get youth active. Furthermore, we are looking towards potentially earning income with the app through advertisements and partnerships with other companies. Lastly, we would like to expand into an android application as well.
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