Inspiration
Our inspiration for SlugNotes came from many other note-sharing websites such as Quizlet, Coursera, and Brainly that put a paywall for vital information for classes. We aim to remove this paywall by specializing in web applications just for UC Santa Cruz students, building a community that thrives on communication and collaboration.
What it does
SlugNotes is a simple note-sharing web application that uses databases to allow students to access and share notes for various classes in college. As students ourselves, we know how tough it can be to get back on track if a lecture is missed, so this application is perfect for students to catch up on notes and lecture material, or simply for studying and/or preparation for courses.
How we built it
We built SlugNotes with Flask, a Python web framework, and created our database with SQLAlchemy. The main functionalities of SlugNotes are built in Python and we designed the UI using HTML/CSS and Javascript. Our code is all written in Visual Studio Code and hosted on GitHub, which allowed us to collaborate together.
Challenges we ran into
This is the first hackathon experience for many of our members, along with the very first web application that we have successfully built together. We haven’t worked with many advanced frameworks and programs yet, so most of the building process worked with tutorials and learning along the way as we built our application.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Our team entered CruzHacks knowing little to nothing about Flask, HTML/CSS, and Javascript. Throughout this 36-hour hackathon, we worked together in learning these languages along with collaborating on Github and creating our very first web application. We are proud of ourselves for making our ideas come to life while learning alongside each other and our strong teamwork the entire way.
What we learned
On a technical level, we mentioned how we started from scratch with a few frameworks such as flask, or just building a web application in general. But on a much more interpersonal level, we were able to learn how to accomplish a task in unity. It was a necessity to be able to communicate with one another and be able to support and uplift each other.
What's next for SlugNotes
Currently, SlugNotes is a work in progress with many more advancements that we hope to integrate this school year. The note-browsing interface only has a few notes listed for Fall 2022 and Winter 2023 quarters, so we want to be able to expand the use of our application to future quarters and save previous notes as well. Furthermore, we want to support more file formats so that students will be able to view notes in their own accessible ways no matter what device they are using. Since this is an application made to improve education, we want to create an Admin access in which Professors and TAs can have control and monitor all the notes that are uploaded for their course.
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