Inspiration
We were Googling floods and watching videos of people driving through giant puddles of water and thinking, “there has to be a better way.” We started thinking about what it would take to coordinate a system where citizens and first responders help each other to get to safety, and we came upon the concept for High Ground.
What it does
High Ground helps rescuees and rescuers in the case of a flood. Our Android app assists rescuees with finding points of High Ground during a flood. Our web app helps rescuers locate rescuees and bring them to safety.
How we built it
We built the Android app using Java. We built the web app using HTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP.
Challenges we ran into
We ran into a few challenges: One of our challenges was debating the legitimacy of our idea. Would first responders actually use this? In a real-world scenario, could we realistically distribute our solution to users? How much sense does each of our features make? Another challenge was that we were periodically distracted by “peripheral ideas” - we would come up with feature ideas that extended beyond the scope of our MVP, and these would distract us from our main goal. Our third challenge was, of course, time. We ran out of time to make a truly beautiful and effective solution.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We’re proud of ourselves for a few things: A few of us had never worked together before. We gelled nicely and had good communication, which made for a cohesive team effort. We had good project management and communication tools. We utilized Slack, Google Drive, and a whiteboard to communicate our ideas. We built two apps, rather than one. A few of us used technologies we hadn’t tried before, so we’re proud of our adaptability and ambition! Lastly, we’re proud to be able to help the NGA think through these important scenarios and potentially help people in a real-world life-threatening situation. Thank you, NGA, for this opportunity!
What we learned
We learned the value of good planning and project management. We also learned about the complexity that goes into thinking through a multi-tiered solution such as ours. The further we went down the rabbit hole, the more we understood how broadly first responders must have to think/plan in order to build accommodating solutions.
What's next for High Ground?
Between these two prototypes, we could see a city like New Orleans and companies like the NGA building similar innovations that help both rescuees and rescuers aid the people at risk of injury or death in a severe flood. We hope that our innovations from this weekend can be harvested and put to good use! Thank you for the opportunity to brainstorm with you.
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