Ibis - IgnitionHacks

Inspiration

We were driven by our own experiences with virtual learning during the pandemic, both in high school and college settings. We saw a drop in our own and our friends’ engagement and ability to absorb information from our classes, as well as a disconnect from our teachers.

What it does

Our product has two ends. The first side caters to students struggling to stay focused on school while in a virtual setting. It allows students who submit assignments on-time to gain points, while students who submit late lose them. After accumulating a certain amount of points, students are able to gain access to resources, prizes, and even scholarships! These opportunities are made available through partnerships with sponsors who want to promote their products to a specific audience. In this manner, both parties are able to benefit! The second side of our product caters to teachers. It’s difficult for teachers to understand how students are interacting with the material they’re teaching, but with machine learning, teachers can pinpoint at what timestamps during a lesson students display signs of confusion, and adapt future lessons accordingly. Our product revolutionizes the world of virtual teaching, which we all know is here to stay.

How we built it

We used Figma and Canva to create our design for our prototype and branding. We used Python, and Google Colab to code an example of what the Gradescope/Google Classroom/Blackboard data extraction and cleaning would look like, as well as implement a deep learning model to measure emotions in sample faces of students.

Challenges we ran into

We had trouble finding a meaningful name for our project, figuring out whether it should be implemented in the form of a website/web extension/app, and figuring out what python packages we would need to produce the outcome we desired. We also had trouble making our branding cohesive, but we were able to overcome these issues with the help of mentors, and a lot of teamwork.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

For both of us, this is our second hackathon ever, and we are so proud we were able to put together such a well–rounded product in an incredibly short amount of time. We were able to overcome a lot of obstacles with each other’s help. Additionally, we have cross-submitted this project to two other hackathons- which took a tremendous amount of planning and collaboration.

What we learned

Nidhi- I learned to create a better brand image for products, and create an all-rounded + well executed design pitch. I was able to figure out how to use layers and prototyping effectively on Figma, which enabled me to create the webpage. Overall, I learned the importance of collaboration and planning, and was able to plan effectively without running out of time on my part of the project. Deepa - I got more comfortable with data cleaning and wrangling, working with the sample submission data. What was more challenging for me was using a completely new python framework and getting comfortable using the abundance of python resources online. I also learned how to ask for help from mentors, who were incredibly helpful.

What's next for Ibis

As we accumulate more resources, we plan to partner with companies that offer more desirable prizes for students, such as hoverboards, headphones, and clothing. Additionally, we want to implement software that detects emotions in students' voices while speaking in the virtual classroom, and gain even more insights in this way. We want learning to be as personalized as it can be in this challenging time.

Built With

• canva
• figma
• google-colab
• python