Inspiration
After a frightening experience walking back from a late night class, a fellow student reported feeling nervous about taking a certain route back to her dorm. Hearing her story and many like hers, our developers felt the need to ensure that all citizens feel safe when walking through the city they are in.
What it does
SafeTravels provides a viable solution to this issue by providing real-time monitoring and live feed updates from other local users within the community. The future mobile application is designed to integrate user input along with local police reporting to give users a clear indication of indicents nearby. Notifying users of such reporting will provide clear avenues for travel by minimizing the risk of hazardous routes.
How we built it
The application was built using basic HTML and CSS skills to create a visually appealing landing page that boasts a dynamic map allowing users to integrate real-time reporting. For primary functionality, JavaScript coding was used to provide application logic and ensure that all user features properly work. GoogleMaps API was also integrated to include the dynamic map SafeTravels utilizes for its overall functionality.
Challenges we ran into
Primary challenges our team encountered included the development of a firm understanding of software applications and integration for the app's overall production. Timelines were another hurdle to overcome specifically since most of the application's functionality was based on pure research about core topics.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Our team came into the hackathon with minimal experience with HTML and CSS and we were able to understand it within a few hours of researching. We are also proud that we overcame the challenge of integrating the GoogleMaps API and are thankful for the help our mentors provided us through its process.
What we learned
We learned how to effectively create a website using HTML and CSS within a short period of time. Our backend team learned how to successfully coordinate with the GoogleMaps API and integrate it into the website. Our presentation team also learned vital entrepreneurial skills and how to “sell” and advertise a product, giving each member of the team (who are all either Computer Science or Cybersecurity majors) a skillset in different fields.
What's next for Safe Travels
We hope to pitch the idea to The Citadel’s entrepreneurship competition: The Baker Business Bowl. A feature that encourages walking and biking by “gamifying” it will allow our product to also have an environmental impact by reducing carbon emissions from motor vehicles. We also hope to expand and incorporate this app into different cities across the nation and eventually the world.
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