Capymaps

A capy-tivating view of a familiar campus.

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Inspiration

  • We took inspiration from MMO Games, where characters across the world can be viewed and interacted with by a user. We wanted to create an online community in a fun, video game style, that would help connect people in their real life community via events.

What it does

  • Users can represent themselves as capybaras around the campus of UMass Amherst, updating where their location & what their mood is!
  • Can also access events happening on campus + relative location, taking data from Campus Pulse.

How we built it

  • We built it using HTML/CSS/Javascript for the front-end, and FastAPI & SQL Model for the backend. The Capybaras and buildings were drawn in IbisPaint X!
  • Using support from google maps data, GitHub copilot, Google Gemini, and more miscellaneous tools.

Challenges we ran into

  • Working with the database, "scaling" buildings to fit a custom-made scale with locations that matched real life latitude and longitude :)
  • Working with new tech stack (some group members' first time with FastAPI, and SQL Model
  • Finishing the art of all of the GUI elements and implementing them before the deadline!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • We are very proud that the project successfully ported real Campus Pulse events from the UMass Amherst website seamlessly into the realm of capybaras. We are proud with the amount of aesthetic polish of our project, including the overall layout and art style. We are very proud of the fact that we were able to accomplish all of it in only 2 days!

What we learned

  • We learned that how to plot GUI elements onto a website, using OOP to create reusable structures
  • We learned that team communication and planning is a vital, and that team members should be constantly discussing and reinventing ideas together when something goes wrong
  • We learned how to create a full stack website from scratch, even when incorporating a wide array of front and back-end APIs

What's next for CapyMaps

  • Implementation for other campuses
  • Adding user capybara history
  • Adding more costumes!
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