Golden Kingston

Let your actions shape your Golden Aura...

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Inspiration

Coming from India, specifically New Delhi, where the AQI shoots up quite dramatically by the end of the year, we’ve always been concerned about the environment and the climate. In our high schools, we tried to take part in multiple sustainable initiatives and drives that supports the environment. When it came to the hackathon and the theme being set as the Golden Age, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for us to combine our collective concern regarding sustainability with a fun project that can promote a change of the better.

What it does

Our web app, Golden Kingston, is a way to strive towards a sustainable future, reminiscent of the Golden Age of sustainability. Through this app, we aim to promote a healthier environment, better waste management, and improved mental wellbeing. The web app allows users to log sustainable activities such as walking/biking instead of using vehicles, keeping your surroundings clean, and any activity that supports one’s mental health. With the each activity being logged, the user gains aura points and has a chance to climb higher onto the city-wide leaderboard, where everyone moves towards the same goal: a new golden age of sustainability.

How we built it

The project’s frontend was built using React and CSS, while the backend was developed with Python, SQL, and FastAPI. Additionally, ElevenLabs was integrated to convert text input into speech through voice synthesis.

Challenges we ran into and Accomplishments that we're proud of

The challenges we faced over the past 3 days were based on the technical aspects of the project. Neither of us had experience with the UI technicalities that come with using React’s interface, so learning this and implementing it in the best way possible to support our project was absolutely crucial. Moreover, we had a chance to better flesh out our experience with JavaScript and CSS, as so far, we’ve tackled far simpler projects. Overall, we’re glad that these challenges were presented to us as it allowed us to further improve our skills, and create something we’re very proud of.

What we learned

Through this hackathon, we gained hands-on experience building a full-stack web application from scratch under time constraints. We significantly improved our understanding of React, particularly component-based design, state management, and integrating frontend logic with backend APIs. On the backend, we strengthened our skills in FastAPI, SQL, and handling structured data efficiently. We also learned the importance of collaboration, version control using GitHub, and iterative development. Most importantly, we learned how to transform an abstract idea around sustainability into a functional and engaging product.

What's next for Golden_Kingston

Moving forward, we aim to expand Golden_Kingston by introducing more personalized sustainability goals and detailed analytics to help users better understand their environmental impact. We plan to enhance the gamification aspect by adding achievements, streaks, and rewards to keep users motivated. Additionally, we would like to integrate real-time environmental data, improve accessibility features, and deploy the application for public use so it can reach a wider community and make a meaningful impact toward a more sustainable future.

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