Inspiration
We wanted to create something that we could actually feasibly do. Neither of us have much CS experience beyond what little we have learned in college so far. We wanted to create something fun and unique, while still being in the realm of possibility with the skills we currently have at our disposal.
What it does
Todd is a quirky bot with a quirky personality. It asks the user how they are feeling and then comes up with a quirky remark based on the user's response. Then, there is a segment where Todd goes more in depth discussing mental health, providing the user with fun and unique facts about mental health and some tips to ensure a healthy mindset.
How we built it
The first portion of the bot was made using a combination of input output statements, as some basic information about Todd is outputted before prompting the user to describe their mood. Then, using a switch structure, we categorize the user's responses into one of five different paths. We then call a function to generate a random number in a range of numbers depending on the different cases of the switch statement. For example, in case 1, the random number will range from 0 to 4. Then, we arranged the program to output an item from an array corresponding to the randomly generated number. This array was a string array containing all of the different responses for the bot. Then, we used a combination of basic input/output and if/else statements to create a section where Todd asks the user some questions about mental health and provides some useful mental health tips.
Challenges we ran into
The greatest challenge came with formatting. We always wanted to make our outputs look somewhat aesthetically pleasing, so we had to reformat our outputs throughout the creative process. This was especially apparent with some of the large emoticons we created, as we had to very carefully format them to ensure that everything came out properly.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Our greatest accomplishment really was just completing the project. Neither of us have ever worked on a project as part of a group before, so managing to successfully coordinate with each other really was a huge accomplishment for us.
What we learned
Our biggest takeaway from this project was learning how to work on a larger group project. Both of us are still relatively new to computer science and have only ever really worked alone. Learning how we can effectively work with another person on a project and divide the workload has been hugely important for both of us.
What's next for Todd The Mental Health Bot
The next step for Todd would likely be to do more of what we have already done. Expanding Todd by adding more unique responses from it and by creating more ways for the user to interact with the bot will really go a long way to helping improve Todd.
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