Solace

Access the internet through SMS messages in times of limited or no internet access!

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The Inspiration

Inspired by the disaster relief prompt sponsored by JP Morgan, Solace is a simple but effective solution to a realistic problem arising from disaster situations. The sad reality is that the internet may not be available or could be extremely limited in times of a disaster. Solace aims to keep people connected in times like these by providing a command-prompt style interface for receiving information from the internet using SMS text messages.

The Idea

Solace works as a bot through your standard SMS text messages. You set up a profile of your first and last name, emergency contact, and address. From there, Solace becomes your SMS access to the internet. Some of Solace's features includes the ability to receive step by step instructions to common questions (i.e. how to bandage a wound, how to filter water, etc.), weather data and rain prediction, step by step instructions to evacuation routes, gas stations, etc., receive open places near you (such as grocery stores), and more!

The Execution

With lots of caffeine, we parsed user input provided by Twilio and integrated with multiple API's to fulfill user requests. The backend is made using Python Flask and deployed into App Engine on Google Cloud Platform. User data is stored in Cloud Firestore to personalize messages and interact with emergency contacts. Parsing user input correctly can be a huge challenges. Spacing and formatting within text messages can be difficult to have it look nice for the user. Also, plenty of merge conflicts occur when working with a larger team! Finishing an app is a great accomplishment. We love the real-world capabilities and even began using it for our own queries along the way.

The Challenges

Many core features were a first for a couple of team members including Google APIs, JSON data, and GitHub's version control. Even sitting next to each other, we learned not to step on each others toes too often and effectively split up tasks to reduce merge conflicts. Teamwork can be great with proper planning!

The Future

Since software development is never finished, we have a few features in the pipeline including adding support for more disaster relief applications to help people regardless of the situation. We can introduce crowdsourcing to have the most recent updates on storm data and events. Providing real-time notifications rather than strictly responding to input.

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