Vinnie's Tinnies

Inspiration

Let's set the scene. It's 9:59 on a dreary Saturday evening. We have made it to what we think is our final bar of the night: Castle. The vibes are off, the drinks are expensive, and someone is trying to smuggle a Castle branded pitcher into their jacket pocket (unsuccessfully, of course). As I stared into the dregs of my underwhelming Smenergy, I get to thinking. Is there a better way than this? As a hill college fresher, the problem of hill vs bailey bars has never been more apparent - which is better? Can it not be both? And then it hits me - I do Computer Science. There IS a better way - there IS a solution to our woes. The travelling salesman problem from term 1 Computational Thinking was our way forward here. A notoriously easy problem to solve, our idea brings together the intricacies of Durham night life and the until now unachievable need for efficiency.

What it does

Vinnie's Tinnies is a route optimisation algorithm with a focus on Durham nightlife hotspots - college bars and clubs. It allows you to choose from a list of all the college bars (as well as add your own locations that you want to visit along the way) and calculates the most efficient route for you to take. Additionally, for each combination of bars that you choose, we've calculated an "alcoholic percentage" to rate your night.

How we built it

After brainstorming our idea, we delegated tasks to each member of our team to focus on their specific strengths. As freshers, we were caught up in the great divide - Programming Gold vs Programming Black. With two Prog Black in our team of five, we split up the tasks based on front end and back end ability. There were specific focuses on finding and modifying the algorithm to calculate the fastest route, gathering information on the bars and their closing times and designing the website itself.