PHS GPS

Map and node pathways
Main
Key for special rooms/landmarks

Inspiration

At the start of the year, it took us very long to find out where everything was in Poolesville HS. All the room numbers were weird and not ordered. We weren't the only ones who had this problem and now that the school year is coming to a close we thought about the incoming freshmen and so we decided to help them out a bit by making a website that they could actually use.

What it does

It uses a system of nodes placed around the map that will let you know where to go. The algorithm analyzes all possible paths between two points and picks the shortest one. The nodes and the algorithm are made only using backend python. The website and the map are made using Javascript, CSS, and HTML.

How we built it

We had two people on our team (Charles and Rithvik) work on the backend python and the algorithm. The other two people (Isabela and Jai) worked on frontend and making the website. After both were done we connected the two and created the canvas that would display the map and the pathway. The reason we have two GitHub repositories is because we worked in two different repls (one for frontend and one for backend.)

Challenges we ran into

One of the main challenges we ran into was how to make the nodes. At first, we wanted to think of it as a picture and give each node a coordinate and have the pathfinding algorithm use the coordinates. We decided that approach would not be a good use of our time and so we decided to make the nodes relative to each other. For example, all the algorithm would see is "Node 2 is next to nodes 1 and 3, Node 3 is next to nodes 4 and 5, etc."

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud that we got the algorithm working in conjunction with the canvas because for a while we had the algorithm working but didn't know how to connect it to the canvas on the website. We eventually decided to give the nodes a coordinate but only the canvas would use the coordinates and the algorithm wouldn't bother with it.

What we learned

We learned the importance of time management because on the first day we spent most of the time brainstorming instead of actually making the website. We also feel that we have advanced our knowledge of all the programming languages we used.

What's next for PHS GPS

PHS GPS could be turned into a database where other schools could upload their maps and make it easier for freshmen to get around. This would be especially helpful in schools like Seneca Valley High School which is huge and very complicated.