NYU OpenSpace

Inspiration

Scheduling an appointment with NYU's provided counseling center can be a slow process. We want to provide an alternative option for students who are seeking a more long-term counselor.

What it does

Our website connects NYU students to easy, accessible, fast appointments with in-network resources based on location. Students have the option of reaching out to the NYU Wellness Center and asking for long-term counselors not affiliated with NYU. However, this process is lengthy and puts more work on the Wellness Center. We hope our platform can minimize the time period it takes to gain access to mental health resources around NYU.

How we built it

We first researched NYU's counseling resources; some of us had previous experiences using the center ourselves. Researching databases was also part of this process. We built the front end using HTML/CSS/JS. For the back end, we primarily used Python to access a database of mental-health facilities around the city and to accept input from the user to help match them with a provider that best fits their needs.

Challenges we ran into

Connecting the front end to the back end was confusing. We used streamlit.io, which none of our members had used before. Ultimately, we are submitting the front-end framework separate from the back-end database.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Although we could not connect the front end to the back-end, we are proud that we got most of those individual components working. We all came in not knowing who we were working with or what our idea was, so being able to collaborate smoothly and having a product to show in general is a big accomplishment for us.

What we learned

HackNYU was everyone in our group's first Hackathon. We learned a lot about the process of creating a project in such a short amount of time and collaborating with students who have different backgrounds in code – from conceptualizing an idea to executing it. Also, we learned how to use streamlit.io.

What's next for NYU OpenSpace

In order to be able to match students to counselors more accurately, we would like to process the student's data more holistically. Additionally, we would like to provide a comparison of the available options for the student, in costs, distance etc.