Inspiration
As the global temperature continues to rise, many people wonder what they could do as individuals to make a difference. There are so many factors that contribute to a person's environmental impact that they do not know about or realize adds up day to day. A lot of people care about the environment, but may not be aware of the impact they have. Did you know that when you washing clothing with polyester, nylon, acrylic, and other synthetic fibers it contributes to plastic pollution in the oceans? Which has a larger carbon footprint, beef or pork? We want people to set goals and be able to see improvement.
What it does
Users create ecosense accounts, which are modeled after fitness tracking apps. The users put in their data and we provide measures of users environmental impact based on user input, divided by the following areas of impact: energy, emissions, and water. It will also provides quick links to environmental data on consumables, activities, etc., based on user interest.
How we built it
For the back end, we settled on using Django-Rest-Framework to create a REST API in Python, which then interfaces with our React+Bootstrap front end.
For the time being, we are using SQLite to store database entries, though Postgres will be used later on.
Challenges we ran into
We had a lot of problems getting our database configured initially, which restricted our time that we could actively spend on developing. Also, we had to spend an inordinate amount of time doing research on environmental statistics. This web app will be much more successful with a longer development time.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We successfully interfaced our front and back end despite our database difficulties. Also, without any experience in React we managed to create a stable and modern website.
What we learned
We learned quite a bit about the environment, especially the impact of food. Also, we got practice using React, a useful web development tool.
What's next for Ecosense
We hope to have a fully fledged web app out by the end of the calendar year, with mobile applications and expanded data sources coming in the future. Also, we would like to try and collaborate with professors in the field of environmental science to get expert opinions and advice.
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