Inspiration:
Seeing the massive amount of support that was offered to relieve Houston after hurricane Harvey was inspirational, but communication still seemed very inefficient. People were, for instance, posting their phone numbers on facebook to advertise that they had boats and were looking to help. We at GroundZero wanted to see how we could streamline the relief process for both the people needing help, and the people looking to give that help.
What it does
GroundZero connects people in need in a free, quick, and easy to use service, with the people that are motivated to help them. In short, it allows anyone to create pins on a map with a title and description of the service that needs to be rendered, and updates in real time. Anyone can add pins, anyone can clear a pin when resolved. Not only does it allow people in need to signal for the help they need- it also allows for volunteers to coordinate supply drops, and shelter meetups. The service is a one stop shop for all disaster relief information in an easy to navigate, tag based sorting system of pins on a map.
How we built it
We built a website that connected to google maps API, and created a form to give information to our mongoDB database to update our map in real time.
Challenges we ran into
MongoDB proved challenging to use, seeing as there always seemed to be another thing to learn or install in order to make a part of it work. Another challenge was dealing with google's API to manipulate the pins how we wanted them to, only because they're documentation is VERY layman, and so when we ran into a bug, it was very hard to pin it down since it's fairly unclear how some of the functions work.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
That the website looks so clear and clean, and the service WORKS. This is something we're VERY passionate about: Applying our skills as computer scientists to help society in such a clear cut way.
What we learned
Lots of API, database, and general integration tricks.
What's next for Ground Zero
We want to expand the 'filter' options for pins, and create accounts and verification for government and corporate entities that are built to provide relief in the case of a disaster. We are very excited to continue this project and push for it to streamline and minimize damages/casualties in a disaster scenario.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.