Inspiration
Summer is meant for relaxation, not sunburns and guesswork. But planning a beach day often means juggling weather forecasts, UV safety, hydration needs, and activities. I wanted to create something that would fuse technology, environmental data, and personal wellness into one clean interface — a digital companion for safe, smart, and sunny adventures.
What it does
SunShare is a smart summer planning app that:
Lets users enter any city and instantly retrieves the UV index and temperature
Uses rule-based AI to recommend safety gear (e.g., hat, sunscreen, sunglasses)
Displays a 7-day temperature chart using Chart.js
Encourages awareness around climate wellness and personal safety
It’s a fun, interactive dashboard designed to promote smarter decisions under the sun.
How we built it
Frontend: Built using React with reusable components and styling hooks. Chart.js (via react-chartjs-2) powers the dynamic weather graphs.
Backend: A lightweight Flask API handles weather data from OpenWeatherMap and applies simple logic to recommend beach essentials.
APIs & Tools: Used OpenWeatherMap for daily weather and UV data. Axios handles the client-side requests.
Hosting-ready: The structure supports separation of concerns, making it deployable via platforms like Vercel (frontend) and Render/Fly.io (backend).
Challenges I ran into
The OpenWeatherMap API does not directly support city names for UV lookups — I had to consider adding geocoding for lat/lon conversion.
Timezones affected how we displayed the 7-day forecast dates properly on charts.
Making a rules-based system for gear recommendation that wasn’t too simple or too complex for a high-school hackathon timeframe.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We created a fully working full-stack web app in a short time with both functionality and visual appeal.
The project fused ideas from healthcare (UV safety), environmental awareness (weather data), and user experience.
It’s beginner-friendly but extensible — perfect for students and families alike!
What we learned
How to connect APIs to both frontend and backend cleanly
How to build lightweight ML-like systems using basic rule logic
How cross-disciplinary thinking (weather + health + design) leads to projects with real-world utility
That great UX isn’t about adding complexity — it’s about adding clarity
What's next for SunSense
Geolocation support: Auto-detect user’s city for instant results
AI personalization: Tailor recommendations based on skin type, time of day, or planned activity Mobile-first design: Convert it into a PWA (Progressive Web App) for on-the-go use Heat safety mode: Warnings or hydration reminders during heatwaves
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