Firefly - Lighting the way

Experience the future of emergency people management with Firefly, the cutting-edge system that uses real-time MQTT communication to keep everyone safe. Respond to emergencies with confidence.

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Inspiration

As students, we're surrounded by technology, yet simple problems like taking an emergency headcount are still being done manually. It's unacceptable that in the face of danger, schools and organizations rely on paper and pen to keep their people safe.

That's why we created Firefly - a cutting-edge emergency headcount system that harnesses the power of real-time communication and the Solace Pub/Sub+ MQTT broker. Our mission is to revolutionize safety technology, and provide a solution that keeps everyone safe, fast.

Our inspiration came from a day where a false alarm caused chaos in our school, and the teaching staff had to manually count students to ensure everyone was safe. We realized that in today's age, technology should be doing the heavy lifting, not teachers.

With Firefly, we're empowering schools and organizations with real-time communication and reliable data exchange, so they can respond to emergencies quickly and with confidence. We believe that everyone deserves to feel safe, and we're proud to be making a difference in the world.

What it does

Firefly - The Revolution in Emergency Human. Imagine a world where schools and organizations respond to emergencies with confidence, and the safety of everyone is ensured. Firefly is that world.

With cutting-edge real-time communication and lightning-fast notifications, Firefly provides accurate data exchange and tracks who's safe and who's not. And the best part? No manual counting, no paper and pen. Just a simple web-app and push notifications to keep everyone safe.

Firefly is powered by the Solace Pub/Sub+ MQTT broker - the same technology that keeps Wall Street running. It's fast, efficient, and reliable. With Firefly, you can rest assured that you're using the latest technology to keep everyone safe.

We have also added a call feature which will redirect to call the student from the teachers phone if he wants to.

Firefly - Revolutionizing safety technology. It's time to leave manual counting and paper and pen in the past. Join the revolution with Firefly.

How we built it

We started by incorporating the Solace Pub/Sub+ MQTT protocol, which allows for lightning-fast message delivery and data exchange. We tested out the MQTT protocol by creating Python scripts that published and subscribed to topics for practice.

Next, we set our sights on creating the core of Firefly - a web application that would act as an MQTT broker. We used JavaScript to build the web application, which allows for seamless communication between the teacher and students.

But that wasn't enough - we wanted to create a system that would be accessible to everyone, so we designed the Firefly MQTT client. This client application is accessible to all students via a link that the teacher shares, and it allows students to respond quickly to emergency notifications.

The application is designed to make emergency response as efficient and accurate as possible. When the teacher sends a push notification to all the students on their list, students can easily respond with their safety status, and the data is stored and displayed to the teacher in real-time.

Challenges we ran into

Building Firefly was like a game of telephone, but with ports. We'd pass along the information, but by the time it got to the end, it was completely garbled. It was like we were trying to speak in binary, but all we knew were puns.

Next, trying to integrate the Paho MQTT library into a web application felt like a bad magic trick. We were constantly waving our wands (or keyboards) and muttering 'abracadabra,' but nothing seemed to be happening. It was like we were trying to turn a web page into a rabbit, but all we got was a 404 error.

And finally, testing the application without a common database felt like playing a game of Marco Polo in a pool of Jello. We'd shout out, but we'd never get a clear response. It was like we were trying to get a straight answer from a politician.

Despite the challenges, we persevered and came out on top. We may not be experts in networking, but we're pretty good at making terrible jokes.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of a lot of things we accomplished with Firefly. From the ground up, we created an emergency headcount system that's lightning-fast and accurate, thanks to our implementation of the Solace Pub/Sub MQTT broker. We also overcame the challenges of integrating the Paho MQTT library into a web application, allowing for easy access to the MQTT client from any device. And of course, we're thrilled that we were able to create a product that has the potential to make a real difference in the world, by improving emergency response times and helping to keep students safe. We're excited to see where Firefly goes from here, and we're proud to have been a part of its creation.

What we learned

During the course of developing Firefly, we had the opportunity to learn a lot about various programming languages, messaging protocols, and the inner workings of MQTT. We delved deep into JavaScript, exploring its many features and using it to build our MQTT broker and client. We also had the chance to work with Python and HTML, which helped us to expand our skill set and learn new ways of approaching problem-solving.

Additionally, we gained valuable insights into messaging protocols, especially MQTT, and how they can be used to build real-time, responsive applications that can make a difference in people's lives. We were especially impressed with the capabilities of the Solace Pub/Sub MQTT broker and how it helped us to create a robust and reliable platform for our emergency headcount system

What's next for Firefly - Lighting the way

  • We are taking our project to the next level by containerizing it and deploying it in Kubernetes, ensuring high availability and scalability.

  • We tried to incorporate the hierarchical concept of topic subscription, but due to lack of time we couldn't implement it in the web-app, we would like to do that also

  • Our goal is to make the application more user-friendly and accessible by transitioning to a full-fledged mobile application. The wireframe we have attached shows how we plan to achieve this.

  • We have gained valuable experience and knowledge in various technologies, such as messaging protocols, JavaScript, HTML, and Python. This will help us in future endeavors.

  • Our collaboration with the Solace team has been a great learning experience, and we are grateful for their support in making this project a success.

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