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Inspiration

We are all rising seniors and about to be going to college in fall of 2022 which means we are reaching the time in which we have to become independent and do things on our own. To try and become more independent we knew we had to do some things on our own, such as cooking. When cooking we sometimes realize that we do not always have the needed ingredients for our intended dishes. What do we do now, give up? Nope, we use Food for Thought. We decided to make an app that could aid us with some recipe options with the ingredients we have available. The app helps us use the ingredients we already have, without making us go out and buy things that recipes call for.

What it does

The app takes the ingredients that a user inputs and searches our database for possible recipes they could make with what they have. The convenience of the app is that the user does not need to go out and buy ingredients and instead the software optimizes what they can do with their given ingredients.

How we built it

We used Android Studio and Java to build our application. We built a database entirely in java and then we used the Android Studio application to retrieve the data and present it.

Challenges we ran into

A challenge we ran into was learning how to use Android Studio. We knew Java, but we haven’t used Android Studio, and since it was an application with a lot of features, it was quite a bit to learn. We also had trouble figuring out how to divide the tasks so that it would all work together. We are all coders of different backgrounds and knowledge, so we had to figure out who’s knowledge would be good in certain tasks, and figuring it out and setting it all up so that we could have an end result took a lot of planning. We also had trouble figuring out how to integrate a database into Android Studio. We weren’t that experienced with database technology, so we decided to create a database within Java, and it took a bit longer as we had to make our own data retrieval methods as well.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of being able to actually integrate our database in the app, as well as implement the whole thing with everyone involved. We are also pretty proud of our UI design, as we were able to add neat pictures for the foods as well as a click handler that would take you to the desired webpage. It was similar to YouTube’s UI for videos, and I felt it worked with our app very well. It was also the first actual application some of us have built for cellular devices, so us creating an app for the first time felt new and exhilarating, and it is something we are proud of.

What we learned

We all learned how to use android studio, so in the future, app development won’t be as challenging. We also learned more about communication and teamwork. A main component of hackathons is learning how to split up work so people are the most efficient, and I feel that these experiences really made us better communicators, which will be beneficial in our future endeavors. We also learned more about Java packaging and modules. A lot of this was necessary in Android Studio, so the exposure to this will make future projects in Java that involve external libraries less of a struggle.

What's next for Food for Thought

We plan to add AR and machine learning into Food for Thought next. To make it even more convenient for the user, we hope to add a feature where they can voice or take pictures of their available ingredients instead of manually inputting them. With this feature we can use photo recognition and machine learning to understand what the user took a photo of or what the user said to find the best recipe for them. This can also make the app hands-free so they can use it with a google home or other home assistants.