SlugSpot

Inspiration

"T'was the night before submission, when all through Jack's Lounge
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The JPS Coders are making progress with care,
In hopes that the judges soon would be there;
They stayed up late typing instead,
While thoughts of study spots danced in their heads."

Two of us are new to UCSC and one of us is a fourth-year; we were brainstorming a solution to help out new and current students. We came up with the idea of a study spot map because we all come from different affiliated colleges and were sharing spots in our areas that we like.

What it does

Prompts the user to enter their desired study location and ask for preference of indoors/outdoors and quiet/loud areas. Then the console shows the user a map of pinpointed study spots near the area of their desired location.

How we built it

We started with importing Folium into Python and generating a map with the map() function and setting the origin of the map to McHenry Library with its coordinates. Then we created an extensive spreadsheet of locations with study spots and their coordinates, hours, in/out, and quiet/loud attributes into a CSV file. That CSV file was imported into Python, and we used a file reader to assign locations and attributes to a list of objects to make it easier to store and retrieve. We also created some boolean functions to check if study spots are open based on real-time. Then we included functions that prompt the user and evaluate the responses to the preference questions. Lastly, we incorporated a regex module to recognize any alternative name used for UCSC locations (e.g. "Rachel Carson" also known as "RCC").

Challenges we ran into

One challenge that we ran into was figuring out how to collaborate with each other because none of us had worked on a group programming project before. But we created a task list, assigned roles, and found a platform we could all code on together.
We also wanted to incorporate an algorithm that shows routes from the current location to the desired location, but we reasoned that we didn't have enough time to complete it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are all proud of the working project we have created in the short time given and the determination it took to power through the day and night. We are also proud of how we made it through our first Hackathon and had fun!

What we learned

We utilized the map() function in Folium through Python for the first time and learned how to create pinpoints. We also learned how to use regex for filtering alternative names for our location, which is a useful tool. Lastly, we learned how to work as a team by helping each other and communicating effectively.

What's next for SlugSpot

The next phase we would like to implement is a feature where other people can add study spots to the map. We believe that this feature will benefit the community and provide information about the various study spots around the UCSC campus. 😀

Built With

• colab
• folium
• python