Green Grid

Green Grid!

Inspiration

As post-secondary students, we don't really have access to automobiles, so we have to learn how to get around with public transit and other modes of transportation. Unfortunately, it can be very dangerous to travel around without the use of cars or transit. Speaking from personal experience as someone who regularly travels back and forth between university and my hometown, I'm sometimes unable to catch the bus or get a ride from my parents, so the only way for me to get home would be by walking across a bridge facilitating high speed vehicles. The sidewalk also ends abruptly along the path, which means I'd need to continue walking on the shoulder of the high speed road. This is why Green Grid was made!

What it does

Green Grid allows users to select a street/area of the map that they are interested in, and uses the power of AI to analyze the conditions of that area to make suggestions on how it can be improved for pedestrians and cyclists. It can also help with drafting a letter to your local city council so that they finally take your concerns seriously.

How we built it

We used the Google Maps API and Google Maps Street View API to set up the location finding capabilities of Green Grid. Then, we made use of OpenAI's GPT 4o model to analyze the street view image and provide suggestions. The model then takes the provided image and the suggestions to craft a draft letter for the purposes of being sent to a city council or similar governing body. This is all set up on a full stack web application powered by Vite+React and Node+Express.

Challenges we ran into

We were inexperienced with both the Google Maps APIs and the OpenAI API, so it was a struggle setting up each of these complex components. The provided guides also used either basic Node or JavaScript, so it took some workarounds to make it work with our React and Express app.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Every major feature that we wanted to build was completed, and this was all done in a weekend. Without being familiar with most of the core technologies. This is a massive win on its own for us.

What we learned

We learned how to use some of the most powerful technologies in the world as of right now, that being OpenAI's GPT 4o API and Google's Maps APIs, to solve the real problem of the inaccessibility of our current infrastructure, and empowering the people to make a change in their local communities.

What's next for Green Grid

The next steps would require a little bit of fine tuning here and there. Right now, we haven't found a way to get the Maps APIs to provide us with street, city, or country names, so we are working towards finding a solution for that at the moment.