-
Website page
-
cat
-
cat 2
-
cat 3
Inspiration
Inspired by the website howmanyf**ingswipesshouldihave.com, which calculates the number of swipes a UCLA student needs to finish before the end of the quarter, we created how many slug points should i have to address a similar issue at UCSC. During the final week of last quarter, we saw students frantically trying to use up their non-refundable points before the quarter ended. Dining hall swipes were being passed around like hotcakes, campus markets and cafes sold out before they even opened, and cases of Yerba Mate's were seen around campus at record numbers. Students were scrambling to get rid of hundreds of dollars worth of meal swipes. We created this website to help save UCSC students' time and money, while also providing comedic comments.
What it does
how many slug points should i have is a website that shows you the amount of slug points you should have right now, in order to finish them by the end of the quarter. The website allows users to choose which meal plan they have, in order to accurately reflect the number of points they should have spent.
How we built it
The website was built using HTML, CSS, and Javascript. We held multiple whiteboard brainstorming sessions to flesh out our ideas. We divided the project up by tasks, with two people working on UI and the other two working on an algorithm to calculate the number of points a student should have left.
Challenges we ran into
One of the major challenges that we faced during this endeavor was the fact that all of us were first-time hackers, and none of us were familiar with HTML and web development. An additional challenge was that we initially tried to take on a very ambitious project for the give time period and our current skill set. We spent much of our initial time learning and debugging to little avail before we decided to pivot to a better-sized stepping stone with this website.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Coming in with no clue what we were going to build, we had a lively discussion with multiple solid ideas to choose from by the end. As a team, we were very proud of our brainstorming and teamwork ability. Despite having some differences of opinions, we were able to all agree to a final conclusion on our project, and ultimately work together. The time-sensitive nature of hackathons also made us proud of our ability to continue working hard and push through the night, despite the sleep deprivation and eye-strain. We are proud of the website created, as we believe it legitimately benefits the UCSC community.
What we learned
As a whole, our group learned of the importance collaboration and specialization. We all had to find out our individual strengths and work together to make a final deliverable product. The incredibly fast-paced, deadline-driven environment of this hackathon allowed us to develop stronger collaboration skills and also teach each other different coding skills. During our initial undertaking with a different project, we learned more about the Android development process and different frameworks such as flutter and Firebase.
What's next for how many slug points should i have
One way to expand this would be to include similar websites for other UC, or other university campuses in general given most universities have a similar system for resident meal plans.
Photo credits: @fatfatpankocat on Instagram
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.