Slug-o-pia

Inspiration

We noticed that many students experience unease when they are alone on campus at night, when the loop bus is not operating, or when they need to navigate through less secure open spaces.

What it does

Our app aims to ease the worries of students who find themselves needing to walk alone on campus. Our platform connects individuals who are looking for walking companions, offering them the ability to form small groups based on mutual agreement. Our app then generates the most efficient path for the group to reach their destinations and verifies everyone's final destination before they set off. With the support of their peers, students can feel safer and more confident while navigating the campus at night.

How we built it

We have integrated GPS location and the A* algorithm to help guide users along the most efficient paths on campus. Additionally, we have incorporated an Augmented Reality system featuring a 3D-designed green arrow that utilizes a complex algorithm to point users toward their destination in Unity. For the design and development of the app, we have used Figma and Flutter for the interface, and also explored React and Balsamiq as design tools.

Our procedure:

Use OpenStreetMap API to get locations/routes
Mark points of interest for users to select as destination/start points
Use GPS data from the user device to route to the destination
Use Niantic Lightship to display user route in front of them
Let users opt into sharing location data, see others near them
Buddy system, meet up with others

Challenges we ran into

Time, algorithm approaches, and our first-time experience with many app-developing tools and interfaces.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Being able to work on the project as a team and help each other with our strengths and weaknesses, we are proud of our efforts and the resulting improvements to the app.