Shore

Inspiration

When planning a beach day with family and friends, how often do you actually check environmental conditions beforehand aside from the weather? If you do, how easy is it to check all the different things that could impact ocean safety? These were the questions we asked ourselves, and we realized that for all of us (and our parents!) the answer to the first question was "basically never".

What it does

Shore extracts data from public sources about factors that impact the overall safety of ocean conditions, such as riptides, currents, and wind. It centralizes all of the information into one compact web application, making safety more convenient and easy for the average beachgoer. Most of the data is updated twice a day from national weather organizations (i.e., NWS), and Shore reflects these live updates. Based on the data, Shore labels surf zones with a risk level (low, moderate, high). Users can search for specific beaches and see accurate and recent information on conditions in mere seconds.

How we built it

Frontend:

next.js
tailwindcss
MapLibre GL JS
TypeScript

Backend:

node.js
neon (postgres)
Vercel

Intelligence:

NVIDIA nemotron

Challenges we ran into

We had a UI issue with the map where it was not displaying and rendering properly. It took a moment to figure out the problem, but it was being hidden. There were other UI issues with overlapping elements, so we resized some elements and added a scroll bar.
We realized that originally, we weren't using nemotron to its full potential. At first, we only used nemotron to do data extraction. The challenge was figuring out different ways to implement nemotron to utilize it fully, and what uses nemotron would perform best in. Ultimately, we decided to give nemotron more responsibilities. For example, we used it to check for contradictions and the validity of parsed data.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We added accessibility features on top of the main features, since making something user-friendly for the average person was one of our main goals.

What we learned

We learned how to use an API effectively in a way that is meaningful.

What's next for Shore

A possible future extension for Shore would be increasing the types of data it extracts and presents to expand possible users from average beachgoers who might simply wade in the water to those who interact with the ocean for specialized hobbies like scuba diving and surfing.