QuickTrace

Input locations screen
Visualizing positive cases in area

Inspiration

Our submission to the HackDuke2020 event is QuickTrace, submitting into the health track category. Our inspiration for this project was hearing reports that in some areas where coronavirus cases were rising at extreme levels, many cities had begun to give up on the monumental task of contact tracing. So, we wanted to create a tool that makes contact tracing quicker and easier, make its data accessible and able to be utilized by both professional contact tracers and the general public, and help city leaders identify potential problem areas in their cities that may need to be monitored closely.

What it does

Our application works by taking submissions through a survey form from either hired contact tracers or those who have confirmed positive tests for COVID-19, and adding their information into our database, and then uses their geocoding information of the places they listed to display points on the map in the ‘View’ page that they had visited.

How we built it

To do this, we built a web application accessible by a domain name using the React framework and utilizing Google Cloud’s Maps, Geocoding, and Places APIs, and a MongoDB database.

Challenges we ran into

The challenges we ran into was being able to effectively connect the APIs to our React components, passing data gathered effectively to the MongoDB database and displaying the data onto the ‘View’ page, and implementing the AutoComplete api in our forms.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of being able to build something with true real world applications during the current pandemic, and being able to provide a connection of valuable information to the public.

What we learned

This was a learning experience for our group, as this was the first hackathon experience for most of our members, and most of our members also had little to no experience using the React framework.

What's next for QuickTrace

Some next steps include adding security to ensure there are no false submissions to the database, and adding more functionality to the map viewer, such as providing information on a point when you click it, such as the name of the place, and what time the infected individual was in the area. Additionally, we’d like to be able to take more data points for contact tracers to utilize through the submissions, such as exposure to high risk individuals, demographics, and their living situation, and we were also working on an autocomplete feature for adding addresses that would allow greater ease for users.