Finaqua

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Inspiration

The alarming decline of fish stocks, and the need for creating a network to connect fishermen while simultaneously collecting data; thus connecting researchers and fishermen. This application will not encourage over-fishing as it alerts the user about the endangered species.

What it does

Finaqua is an excellent source of fisheries databases, which are displayed in a user-friendly and easy to understand manner. It gathers researchers, scientists, fisherman (professional or recreational) and even non-fisherman, who are interested in learning more about fishing in one place. Not only does this raise awareness towards fishing and fish in general, owing to its fish identification and educational features, but it also helps the scientific community in contacting one another to serve the bigger aim of this software, which is collecting a huge database and helping the marine environment. It also includes an incentive for people to use it, which is the trip tracking and weather forecasting feature. A fisherman can track his/her trip at the end of the day, and detect their fishing hotspots and danger zones. It can also send notifications regarding the season of the user's favourite fish, and where they would find it.

This application connects fishermen and researchers, and to do this we need to draw the fishermen into the application, we have provided a map which documents the trail of the user. Thus, the fisherman can refer back to it to know where he/she caught a specific type of fish (hotspots), the no-fishing zones, and alerts them with sudden weather changes.

This application also has a community and education feature, which helps professional and recreational fishermen to benefit from each other. Moreover, this would help the researchers understand the preferences of fishermen, if needed. This application can identity the fish for the user, which would help beginner fishermen, and professional fishermen who have just come across a new type of fish.

How we built it

We have used the latest Android SDK to build this using Google's Android Studio. Also, Google maps and several other built in libraries were used.

Challenges we ran into

The fish identification; camera manipulation (shutter speed) to get a clear photo.
Using GPS coordinates, storing them and animating them.
Understanding how layouts and classes interact.
Gradle!!!!
Even though it was a great idea to have a team which had members of different programming levels, it did not serve us as we had expected due to the lack of time. This is due to the fact that some basics, which were crucial for developing the software had to be taught by the experienced programmer to the junior programmers.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The user-friendly interface. The various features: Fish identification, community, maps, education, red list..etc. Connecting the fishermen and researchers through a community network.

What we learned

Experimenting with the software, and understanding the problems facing the fishing community and fisheries were the biggest sources of information during the competition.

The experienced programmer was patient and had all the answers to the junior programmers' questions when it came to searching for and evaluating the code which was useful for developing the program. As a result, the junior programmers are now able to put their hands on the right resources for developing future software, acquired evaluating skills, as well as improved their teamwork skills.