80-Hole Heap

Inspiration

Jamaica’s roads are riddled with potholes, making driving a frustrating and dangerous experience. The name Hole Heap is inspired by the popular Jamaican phrase "whole heap," meaning "plenty," combined with "hole" from pothole—because we have whole heap of potholes (a "hole" heap)!

What it does

Hole Heap is a real-time pothole reporting and alert system that helps protect drivers and their cars and assists authorities in identifying potholes that need to be fixed.

Users can drop a pin on a map to report potholes.
Users can upload images and rate the pothole's danger level to improve report accuracy.
Users can upvote potholes that have been previously reported in the app to boost its priority.
Drivers receive real-time alerts about dangerous potholes on their route.
Authorities get a weekly crowd-sourced report to be able to identify needed road repairs and prioritize them accordingly.

How we built it

We used:

Geo Location Services for location-based pothole reporting.
React Native for the frontend.
Firebase and CloudAMQP for real-time data syncing.
Postgres for data persistence.
Python and Flask for the backend. -Zustand for state management. -EAS for deployment. -React Query for API Caching. -Post Hog for analytics and feature flags. -Sentry for error monitoring. -Render for backend deployment

Challenges we ran into

Finding a way to rate pothole danger levels accurately.
Ensuring reports are credible and not spammed.
Integrating real-time alerts without overwhelming users with notifications.
Finding a business model for a social good app.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Successfully built a working prototype in a short time.
Created an engaging, user-friendly interface.
Developed a crowd-sourced solution that can genuinely improve road safety.
Established a model for government collaboration to make an impact.

What we learned

The importance of UX design for community-driven apps.
Balancing real-time updates while avoiding notification fatigue.
The potential for AI in assessing pothole severity.
The power of community reporting in solving infrastructure issues.

What's next for Hole Heap

Partnering with the government for official road maintenance integration.
Add engaging features like Top 10 worst potholes and Pothole of the Week to add a fun twist.
Introducing gamification (badges for frequent reporters).
Expanding to include other road hazards like flooding and roadblocks.

🚧 Hole Heap—Saving Your Car, One Pothole at a Time! 🚗💨

[Hole Heap][Row 4]