Environmental Awareness

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Problem Statement

Environmental sustainability is a broad issue that concerns many aspects of our world. In our modern society, the trade-off between economic growth and environmental responsibility is an increasingly important problem to address.

Sustainability is a large issue with many facets and approaches. From personal environmental responsibility to local initiatives and even international movements, sustainability is an issue that affects a wide range of scales. In terms of specific aspects of sustainability, some ideas include renewable energy, pollution, global warming, resource extraction, habitat protection, water consumption, etc.

You have 42 hours to design, implement, and pitch a potential solution using technology to help improve environmental sustainability in some way.

Solutions should address more than one facet of a specific issue in environmental sustainability, potentially including elements of policy, awareness campaigns, or logistical implementation in addition to the actual product. Products can vary in a variety of ways as long as they make use of technology and are relevant to the solution. Potential ideas could include, but are not limited to, data analysis, computer modeling, interactive education software, and application development.

Research background

Right now on google look up Air Quality near me, now look up AQI index, now again go look up lung effects of air quality, then look up... Do you get it? I have to go back to my search engine and spend more time running around the internet to find what I need regarding Air Quality. After testing how much time it takes to find the information and then scan it, then move on again, showed how intensive and how much more time consuming it was to research a topic that is all over the internet. This waste of time combined with complexity leads to a loss of interest in what a person is doing.

If I told you right now in 5 minutes I could make you 200$, you would be somewhat interested right? I mean 200 dollars in such a short time of 5 minutes? Provided I was telling the truth, that's a steal! Now what if I told you I could make you 300$ in 2 hours? Well, all of a sudden you are not as ecstatic because it takes a lot longer, and now you are probably wondering, is it even worth that time to just make an extra 100 than 5 minutes? This is a simple human psychology experiment that we have all been through in our life times.

This can actually trigger the same response your brain would have as if you were all of a sudden procrastinating according to nesslabs.com. Why? It's a battle of the limbic system (the unconscious zone that includes the pleasure center) and the prefrontal cortex of the brain. When your interested in a topic but it becomes much harder to navigate it, we start to get this brain response.

Purpose

The purpose of this website was to create an easy way to navigate and educate on topics involved in environmental sustainability. Since the Internet is so complicated and has thousands of websites dedicated to Environmental challenges, this single website makes it super easy to get the best validated information regarding a topic you are looking for. At the same time the website gives off very fluid mechanics to make it smooth and appealing to how the brain perceives a website. We have all seen those basic html sites with so much to navigate and look for, but now we just made it simple and appealing through programming and markup languages. We don't want it to have to complicated for you to get the information you need regarding Environmental Sustainability.

Solution concept

As a solo team, the solution needed to be efficient in the timeframe provided. The first thought was to create some type of app on an iPhone or Android that would make it super easy to get all the information needed for Environmental Sustainability at any moment even if you are not at your computer. However, that proved to be difficult for a single person team in the time frame provided. So as a result an idea popped up that if a website is made, it can still be accessed from a phone, and it can become more known as well as accessible to everyone on the internet. At the same time it would still be visually pleasing on a phone or tablet. So the final choice was a website as it is universal across Android, Apple, Windows, etc...

Product

The website allows for easy navigation of Environmental Sustainability topics. Provided in the screenshots and if you actually go to the product at https://environment07.github.io, you will see multiple environmental related subjects in the catalog. So far as it would take longer to have a fully functional site, Air Quality and Climate Change information is so far in the main catalog. For now Air Quality is the only subject with actual information provided in the secondary catalog. Currently Climate Change does not have information.

Target audience

The world is changing into a digital era more and more every day. This mostly applies to Adults below the age of 65 and minors. Every day people are on the internet at some point and as a result a very large population is the target of this website. This website was made mainly for people who are interested in Environmental sustainability but at the same time this would fall into the world population of ages 12-40. In truth this product can serve absolutely anybody as it is easy information to understand which would mean people not well versed in Environmental Sustainability, but at the same time it could even be valuable to experts as there are quick mechanics involved such as real time air quality tracking, etc...

Impact

The desired impact is ultimately to start the era of easy navigation regarding and information not just Environmental Sustainability. We are now in an age where the internet is not new and there are millions of websites, so much information everywhere, and as a result we need easy ways to trek information. This has already started in other subjects but mainly in scientific fields such as Environmental Sustainability, it is getting increasingly difficult to find the information you need and getting that information in a way that is easy to understand. At the same time though the second impact would also be actual education and informing people of Environmental Sustainability which is becoming an issue at an increasing rate as our world is breaking. People need to be informed and have reasons to participate in helping with sustainability of our planet, and that all starts with being able to access easy information at the click of a button.

Next steps

I want to see how the idea behind incredibly easy navigation can be expanded on to other subjects in the world. What else is super complicated to find information on regarding the internet is a great question for how this product can be expanded. This product would be also more complete regarding Environmental Sustainability with more time as the easy catalog would be built.

Conclusion

This was a completely different experience for me as I was designing a concept with Computer Science that would have the possibility to expand on easy information regarding important world issues that we face today. This made me truly realize that Computer Science is really a tool for building on any other subject in life, whether it is your business, your nonprofit, your resume, your concern of global issues. I am really excited going into the future knowing that I have a tool that can help me with my impact on the world.