NoVirus

The go-to app for tracking coronavirus and other viruses

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Inspiration

When news broke about the Coronavirus in Wuhan, China, people began to panic across the globe. With a two week symptomless period during which the disease is still transmittable, the disease could have a exponentially increasing spread rate. When a case was discovered in Orange County, the problem suddenly felt much closer to home. As our team brainstormed a project idea, we came upon the idea of tracing viruses as they could spread from person to person to reduce the chance.

What it does

The NoVirus app notifies users if they were ever in close vicinity of someone who contracted a contagious disease. By cross-referencing user location history, NoVirus looks at a sick patient’s travel patterns during the infectious period of their disease. If somebody happened to cross paths at any point within that time period, NoVirus will update their dashboard to display that information.

How we built it

We used React Native to build an iOS app with geolocation, allowing us to track users and see if they may have been near someone else. Our backend is written in Python using Flask.

Challenges we ran into

  • reliable and efficient geolocation
  • React Native UI, forms
  • everything

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

  • Building our first real app
  • Making it work!

What we learned

  • How to build an app in React Native
  • How to write a backend server using Flask

What's next for Novirus - location-based health tracker

  • Push notifications
  • Better tracking algorithm
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