Lost? Not Anymore!

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Inspiration

As three college students, we always look forward to breaks, where we can have a chance to explore new places we have never been to. We always had to go through the challenges of doing a lot of research to find the perfect route, which is not only fun but, most importantly, cost-effective. As students, we want our trip to be not only enjoyable but also cost-effective. That’s what inspired us to make our website: “Lost? Not Anymore”.

What it does

AI simplifies the amount of research you have to do for the perfect trip. Just type in the place you want to visit, preferences of trip style, and how many days you are traveling for. The AI gives you the list of places with condensed and effective summaries of each place, along with the route in Google Maps.

How we built it

We designed the code using Figma and implemented it in React and TypeScript for Node.js. We chose this approach because React enables seamless editing for maximum creativity, while Figma provides an easy-to-use interface for web design. For our backend, we integrated the Google Maps API and Deepseek API using Uvicorn in Python files, as this was the most efficient way to manage our API keys. Python allows for easier communication with our front-end code.

Challenges we ran into

One of the members was a first-time hackathon goer, so there were many challenges. Her only coding experience was in Java and Python at an introductory level, so all of the programs and the inherent challenges of using other languages were difficult for her. Getting her up to par with the skills of the other teammates was an impressive feat we managed to accomplish, but by the end of the project, she became a major contributor to the team’s project.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to have collaborated on GitHub. It was our first experience working together through GitHub. Coding was even more fun because everyone shined in their respective ways by taking responsibility for different tasks. One of the members (a first-time hackathon goer) supported frontend development by working on Figma and switching it to code. The rest of the members (more experienced) supported backend development by working on implementing the API. Although it was difficult to tie everything up, we persevered by not giving up; learning together and bonding as a team was a lesson we would remember.

What we learned

We learned to enjoy the process rather than focusing solely on the result. Working as a team made the process more motivating, as we kept encouraging each other to push forward during the project. Mentors made learning more enjoyable by giving us crash courses on all the new software we encountered. Simply being surrounded by people with a similar passion at this hackathon made the experience exciting. The lessons we learned from the hackathon will be valuable for our future.