SkyPlanner

Inspiration

The 2 hour “one-size-fits-all” standard for getting to the airport is simply not accurate enough and can lead to frustrating travel inconveniences.

What it does

Rather than reinventing the wheel, SkyPlanner integrates various sources of information into a seamless user experience. SkyPlanner takes into account the whole process of getting to the airport, all the way from your house's door to the gate, including traffic times, parking at the airport, security lines, delays, and even time spent walking in the terminal.

How we built it

To build SkyPlanner, we used Ruby on Rails, along with the Google Maps, and FlightAware APIs. In addition to that, we wrote a web scraper to get information about the security lines at the Atlanta airport.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges we ran into was coming up with how we could get real-time data about security lines at different airports around the country. Although the first version of SkyPlanner only includes the Atlanta airport, we found that other major airports also provide this information on their websites, so there is certainly potential for extension in the future. Another challenge was actually collecting and interpreting the data provided efficiently, since we could not look at any historical data, and had to come up with our own mechanism for providing predictions for security lines, depending on which day of the week it is.

Accomplishments that we are proud of

Our biggest challenge was also our biggest accomplishment. Coming up with an effective way to record and analyze data regarding security lines is something that we are proud of. In addition to that, the user interface came out looking much better than expected, especially considering our inexperience with the UI aspects of development.

What we learned

It was different working under such a tight time constraint to make something that was at least someone functional and presentable by the end. It really pushed simultaneous development using git as version control, and actually helped us learn quite a bit about those pesky merge conflicts.

What's next for SkyPlanner

SkyPlanner could certainly benefit from having its reach expanded. Mobile apps could help gather live data about security lines and other bottlenecks at airports that is more accurate than the estimates provided by the airport itself. Many of the predictions provided in the first version could also be expanded upon, with the timing for walking being down to the accuracy of a specific gate.