Tempest

We decided to make a weather app designed for runners, by runners. Users select preferences and can view a schedule to help them exercise during the week. We make sure every runner outruns the storm.

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Inspiration

We decided to create an application that helps users plan when the best time to exercise is. As runners, we know how hard to can be to motivate yourself to workout and how easy it is to blame the weather for skipping a day. We decided to address this issue and help runners set a weather-based schedule. With coronavirus affecting everyone’s lives, we hope to bring routine to people’s schedules with workout structure.

What it does

When first booted up, the app shows a short description of what it’s used for. It then takes the user to the preference screen where they are prompted to set a range of temperatures they would like to work out in. This provides more personalized recommendations as different users have different climate tolerances. The preference page also asks for what time frame they would like to workout in. The schedule will then display the next 24 hours of availability. This is enough time for the user to check their phones in the morning and know when would be the most comfortable and convenient for them. It also displays the next seven days and whether or not they should take advantage of a sunny day or do an indoor workout instead.

How we built it

We ultimately went with an Android App built on Android Studio. Our app is built upon the DarkSky weather API, a service that provides weather data for any given location. We used a fusedLocationProvider from Android to get the devices data, which gave us coordinates for DarkSky. We parsed the JSON object returned by DarkSky with the OkHttp library. After successfully parsing, we were able to put varies data sets into arrays and display them the text and list views on our app. The XML and java files linked to show the user exactly what their schedule is!

Challenges we ran into

We originally wanted to make Tempest a website, but after several hours of attempts, we decided to play to our strengths and make an app instead. This was a little disappointing at first, since the Hackathon had just started, but in the end we were very happy with the final product. We also struggled a bit to get the virtual devices set up correctly to test our app, but we figured that out too.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're really proud of completing a fully functional app in just 36 hours. Most of us had never done a hackathon before, so we really tried to focus on the experience and participate as much as possible. Our app successfully does everything we planned on and we all learned a lot along the way.

What we learned

We learned a lot about communication and how crucial it is when working remotely with a deadline. We stayed on calls the majority of the weekend and were able to bounce ideas back and forth very effectively. We also learned a lot about app development, which none of us had much experience in before.

What's next for Tempest

The state of the world in 2020 has brought out the runner’s spirit in many Americans, not only for the health benefits, but also just as an excuse to get outside and enjoy the fresh air. With Tempest we can make sure that every runner gets their chance to enjoy the sunshine and evade the rainy days. But not only is the running community expanding, the tempest user base and features also has the potential to expand exponentially; we can add features to target all sorts of activities such as hiking and cycling, to best prepare Tempest users we can recommend the best type of clothing for their activities, and for the new wave of hygiene enthusiasts we can add a feature that tracks the least populated areas and coordinates the Tempest users to promote the ideal social distancing scenario. Once some popularity has been gained we can even link like minded Tempest users based on their activity preferences. With Tempest, we’ll make sure every runner outruns their rainy day and their stormy night.

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