SUS UVA - Sustainability Undertaken by Students

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SQL Schema

Inspiration

The urgency of climate change and the wide variety of related issues connected to it is the largest challenge and opportunity of the 21st century. The challenges of climate change require us to build a community of changemakers willing to demonstrate their commitment to the fight with action. These changemakers will lead the transition of making our lifestyles sustainable. Elevating our community will require a coordinated effort that is only possible when users like you are willing to put in that work.

What it does

SUS UVA serves as a fun, accountability platform where users can be inspired to better everyday practices that are healthier for the environment. Each user has an account and profile where they can post updates, tasks, and ideas they have in regards to sustainability. There is a point-based system assigned with each task the user might input so that tasks with higher complexity and larger impact are weighted heavier. The social aspect of the platform seeks to build a community centered on the goals established by the UVA sustainability commission.

How we built it

Frontend

used Django
linked HTML to backend API to persist and retrieve data

Backend

used node.js, docker (deployment), Prisma — PostgreSQL
SQL schema included tables for users, posts, and tasks with the necessary relations between them
/routers includes all the API routing while /controllers includes all the application logic

Challenges we ran into

Picking the right web framework to
Connecting the endpoints of Prisma with Django
Picking the right point values for each category and task
Trying to use DataStax without prior experience with integrating it with node.js

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As a team of relatively new programmers, we are proud of how we were able to connect the front end with the backend and build a product for social impact that uses many of the concepts we have learned in the classroom.

What we learned

We further developed our understanding of how wide in scope the challenges of climate change are and the difficulties of assigning quantitative values with the different actions that students can take.

What's next for SUS UVA - Sustainability Undertaken by Students

We want SUS UVA to be a part of the conversation on how technology can be leveraged in daily life to improve our community. In the future, we want to further develop the features of friending and gamification to add to the appeal of SUS UVA.