Rebuild

Home screen and logo.
How to use Rebuild.
Map with markers that indicate nearby resources and dangers.
Add markers to inform others of resources and dangers.

Inspiration

Disasters can strike quickly and without notice. Most people are unprepared for situations such as earthquakes which occur with alarming frequency along the Pacific Rim. When wifi and cell service are unavailable, medical aid, food, water, and shelter struggle to be shared as the community can only communicate and connect in person.

What it does

In disaster situations, Rebuild allows users to share and receive information about nearby resources and dangers by placing icons on a map. Rebuild uses a mesh network to automatically transfer data between nearby devices, ensuring that users have the most recent information in their area. What makes Rebuild a unique and effective app is that it does not require WIFI to share and receive data.

How we built it

We built it with Android and the Nearby Connections API, a built-in Android library which manages the

Challenges we ran into

The main challenges we faced while making this project were updating the device location so that the markers are placed accurately, and establishing a reliable mesh-network connection between the app users. While these features still aren't perfect, after a long night we managed to reach something we are satisfied with.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

WORKING MESH NETWORK! (If you heard the scream of joy last night I apologize.)

What we learned

What's next for Rebuild

Built With

android-studio
figma
java
location
maps
mesh-network

Submitted to

nwHacks 2020
- Winner 2nd Place
- Winner Wolfram Award

Created by

My main contribution want using the Google Maps API, to generate accurate maps surrounding the user's location as well as working on the functionality of adding location markers on the map. Additionally, I also worked on retrieving the user's last known location if there was no access to wifi and gps.

Praneer Shrestha
As the team lead and software developer, I consistently assigned tasks to team members and continually reassessed priority of work to ensure the team was moving in the right direction, at the right time.

I built a complex wrapper for the Android Nearby Connections API so that it would pass information between multiple devices (M to N), created a Service to constantly share and receive the information, designed the serialization and deserialization of the data, and implemented a large part of the designs by the designer into the interface of the application.

Jeffrey Leung
Bio? Why not physics?
My main role in this project was integrating the layout and images designed by Michelle into the application.

I also helped put together the Devpost and test the application.

Shea Janke
Michelle Swolfs
Amir Naghibi
Computer Science student at University of British Columbia