Ketchup

27% of K-12 NC students missed 10%+ of school days in 2022. Ketchup is an absence management toolbox to help teachers and parents/guardians work together to effectively catch students up on absences.

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Project overview

27% of K-12 NC students missed 10%+ of school days in 2022. Ketchup is an absence management toolbox to help teachers and parents/guardians work together to effectively catch students up on absences.

Inspiration

At our very first RSA meeting, Josh recalled a story from 8th grade, about a classmate who frequently missed school. “I wonder why they never show up?” he asked a friend back then. Their classmate had to stay home to take care of their family.

Family responsibilities, illness, transportation issues, and many other factors all contribute to the chronic absenteeism that is pervasive in North Carolina today.

After learning that nearly 50% of parents nationwide support the use of tools like AI for academic support, we realized the potential for innovation in school-day absence management, and providing learners with more effective resources. The idea for Ketchup was born.

Ketchup is a mobile app that creates a bridge between teachers, students, and guardians. By combining the use of AI-powered learning support, discussion forums, and content embedding, in addition to a convenient user interface, our app empowers students to stay on track at school by leveraging technology. As for the name “Ketchup,” it speaks for itself. Ketchup aims to help caretakers get their students ‘caught up’ on missing work.

What it does

Ketchup enables teachers to keep both guardians and students informed and up to date on assignments they may have missed during class. The teacher interface allows educators to write quick comments on each day’s lesson, and upload any relevant documents. Ketchup can condense, personalize, and provide that information for parents and guardians on any day they choose.

With features such as an interactive calendar to easily organize daily content, the app’s friendly user interface empowers families to stay on track with student education. In addition to this, Ketchup offers an artificial intelligence chat model powered by Google’s Gemini AI, trained to help users create learning plans and act as a learning support aid. Ketchup also offers specialized teacher and student accounts with tailored abilities, and upload features for assignments and learning materials such as links, videos, and documents.

How we built it

Ketchup was developed in VS Code, with collaboration being managed through GitHub. We used React Native to bring our app interface to life with JavaScript, thanks to its convenient component system and ability to manage user states.

To enhance design speed, we employed Tailwind CSS, an in-line styling framework for UI creation. Data management for classes, attendance, and the parent/teacher portal was all conducted using Firebase, to securely store data and respect data privacy. Additional technologies included were Google Gemini’s API for AI tool development and libraries for image uploads, etc.

Challenges we ran into

Coming from different backgrounds in terms of hometown, career interests, and experiences, finding a way to combine all of our skill sets and keep everyone updated with the work we’re doing was not an easy task. We had varying abilities in coding experience, and creating the application in React had a steep learning curve, leading us to form a mentorship between team members to learn.

This challenge tremendously helped us enhance our communication and documentation skills as we ensured we pushed the correct code to GitHub without rewriting the code of others. We also struggled to find mutual meeting times to work on the application or debrief the work we had already done. As we all had busy schedules and March was competition season, we had to huddle together to sit down and set realistic goals and deadlines to work on the development of our application and project.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As five students from diverse regions across North Carolina, we united at NCSSM (our state-wide high school), looking to transform innovative ideas into reality. One of our largest accomplishments was combining our unique skill sets into creating Ketchup.

We had varying levels of experience in mobile app development and artistic design, but through long and meaningful meetings, we fed off of each other’s energy to achieve goals and create a successful all-around app. Another accomplishment we found great pride in was more technical, as implementing the AI chat feature powered by Google’s Gemini was a first for us, and we developed an extensive amount of knowledge with API integration.

In addition, we were able to make an appealing and easy-to-use user interface by leveraging varying creative visions.

What we learned

In terms of technical skills, we all developed a moderate ability to work with React Native. Some of us used the framework for the first time, while others strengthened their familiarity with new libraries for image selection and database management.

We all have different long-term goals, with interests including neuroscience, performing arts, entrepreneurship, and more. Ready, Set, App! was an extremely beneficial experience for all of us, enabling us to have an awesome chance to work through the entire product development process, understand modern app development workflows, and most importantly, develop collaboration skills that will serve us in all our passions.

Throughout the entirety of our time working on this project, we developed strong "team player" skills and learned how to use our mistakes as guidance to successfully achieve our goals.

What's next for Ketchup

Ketchup has many opportunities for improvement. Whether a Google Classroom integration through Google Classroom’s API, a convenient direct messaging feature between parents/guardians and teachers, or more user-friendly features that help adults who may struggle with digital literacy, there are so many areas where we can apply real consumer feedback to expand our impact.

Additionally, push notifications and email notifications would enable parents and students to be constantly informed and on top of work. With our team’s drive and resilience, Ketchup can only grow, and we aim to help revolutionize the educational technology world, one absence at a time.

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