Inspiration
The growing climate crisis was the inspiration behind our project. Fossil-fuel vehicles are a large part of the world's carbon footprint. Electric vehicles are the future of the vehicle market, but they require lithium-ion batteries. These batteries come from a finite resource that causes a number of negative externalities in the mining process. This is why recycling these batteries have become so important. Recyclers often spend a lot of time figuring out the composition of these batteries. This inspired us to create an app that helps in the process of recycling these batteries.
What it does
X Voltage App measures electric vehicle batteries’ state of health and the chemical composition of the cathode. Simply input the battery ID into the app in order to calculate the remaining battery level. This simplifies the recycling process so that recyclers know what materials can be reused from each battery. Once the battery is recreated it can be resold to car manufacturers who will need to measure the battery’s state of health before placing it in the vehicle.
How we built it
We coded the front end in android studio to accommodate a large customer base of smartphone users. In order to expand the functionality of the app, we used MySQL in order to accommodate the large data sets from manufacturers of battery ids.
Challenges we ran into
One challenge we faced was learning how to code in sequel because we had never used it before. It took a lot of time and cut down all we could do for our final product.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
In the end, we are proud of our accomplishment of establishing a database of Battery ID numbers and developed a formula to create an output of the battery's composition. We are proud to have expanded our coding skills and learned how to use databases.
What we learned
We learned all the challenges of designing an app and coding it. We also learned a lot about the process of ideation and how to make an idea into a functioning product. Through this challenge, we have learned what it takes to create a startup.
What's next for Sustainable Energy Team 7: X Voltage
We hope to continue to develop our app to make sure its functionality and purpose are solid. Currently, the app is only made for androids and we would like to expand the mobile platforms and devices that can support the app. Finally, we would like to increase the quality of graphics on the app. We hope that our app provides a solution to the unknown state of health of used batteries.
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