Elderly at Ease

All-in-one software for seniors' emotional and physical needs in aging in place by bridging the digital divide.

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Track

Aging in place track.

Inspiration

As close friends and former volunteers with and for the elderly, our entire team understands the personal struggles, both physical and emotional, that they endure as they age in place. When asked what they would like, their answers may vary, from a helping hand to someone to walk with to someone to just talk with, but, ultimately, it always boils down to having a caretaker and a community, consisting of physical and emotional resources. For the growing world-wide population of elderly who are all concerned with aging in place, then, we set down to do our research, understand their key pain points, design software targeted to address them, and make it happen (feasible and viable, near production-ready software).

What it does

'Elderly at Ease' is a software designed with seniors first. It consists of the key capabilities to connect with others, interact with one's connections/matches, and access a virtual assistant for any and all help, from browsing the web to short jokes. In other words, it balances security and robustness--multifactor authentication and a thoroughly tested, production-ready piece of software--with user experience and autonomy--easy to use and navigate interface without clutter and the ability to get one's own caregivers and create one's own community.

How we built it

Began with system design and modeling of the components as part of the object-oriented programming paradigm. Then coded in Python, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS with an SQLite database and the Django web framework. Also used REST APIs, both developed by us and external (Twilio API for multifactor authentication, Dialogflow API for assistant).

Challenges we ran into

Focusing on production-readiness required lots of refinement and testing, which made it particularly hard given the time constraints. Specifically, we had to find a way to balance ease-of-use with robustness when implementing a security feature. We solved this challnge by designing and implementing a custom authorization flow using the Twilio API to provide optional SMS/Phone verification and creating a clear mark on users' profiles indicating their verification status. Additionally, we set up all the system components on Django with an object-oriented programming design for reusability and quick shipment into production; specifically, it could be shipped with Amazon Web Services and Elastic Beanstalk.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are most proud that we were able to translate our research and knowledge of end users' pain points (elderly aging in place) into software that successfully targets all of them. Specifically, our near production-ready software provides a secure and flexible platform for the elderly to access and acquire physical and emotional resources, such as caregivers and a community.

What we learned

We learned both the larger visionary skills needed to produce an overall system for production and the more detail-oriented skills needed to edit and configure 'black boxes' (source code, databases) for optimal use in a project. Working under time constraints accelerated our growth in the areas of system design, project management/collaboration, and object-oriented design and programming with a focus on software that is feasible, viable, and can be moved into production. Additionally, we configured any and all third-party libraries that were used at their source code and ran into many moments where manual configuration of the SQLite database linked to Django was necessary.

What's next for Elderly at Ease

We believe in our work. Our next steps consist of a simple action plan to develop the necessary components to move toward production (e.g. cloud server database, server hosting, CDN) and acquire funding and support (e.g. Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship). But it all begins with your help and support to jump start our solution into the real world.

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