Where's Our Bus App?

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  Screenshot of the bus rider's version of the app, showing location of where their bus would be in relevance to their bus stop.

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  Screenshot of bus driver's version of the app which is sending location to the student app version. Students will know where the bus is.

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  Opening screen for Where's Our Bus App?

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  Creators of Where's Our Bus App? (Fatima Cruz, Kieran Bryant, Tatianna Wilkins)

Inspiration

The almost daily struggles of being a morning-bus-rider. Running late to the bus stop, getting soaked in a sudden downpour, so much shivering in the winter, and a couple times even waiting almost an hour for the bus to come. Then having your mom pick you up from bus stop to go to school, and having the bus arrive as you step foot in the car (true story!).Frustration from these school buses gave birth to this app.

What it does

We have two separate app versions! One for a bus driver and another for a bus rider! The bus driver version merely sends its current location to the bus riders' app version. The bus rider app pulls up a Google map that shows where the bus currently is in relation to the bus stop. At a certain number of minutes or miles, an alert will be sent telling that bus rider to hurry up to the bus stop if they're still home.

How I built it

Along with the generous and much appreciated help and support of our mentors, our team built our app using primarily Sensor Locations, Firebase, and Google Maps. We created it with much simplicity to fit its use, which would be early and rushed school mornings. The apps do nothing more than what is needed.

Challenges I ran into

Our plan was an animation be played upon opening the app. Lasting only a few seconds! We couldn't find a good way around it so we stuck to using a simple image as the opening screen. Another challenge was receiving the accurate location from the bus driver's version of the app! As well as the interchanging of the map screens on the bus rider version.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I feel accomplished as a team because we were able to build something great. Even though we may have lack prior knowledge on information, we gained so much skill and understanding. As a group we were able to come together and bring the skills we already had and channeled them into our app. Our very own app! How can one not be proud of that?

What I learned

We learned many things beyond just app development. Problem solving, communication, perseverance, you name it! As a team, we each got express our own strengths but also learn new skills from one another. With the development of apps we learned that it's all about putting together what works. App development is a continuous cycle trial and error. Each app works like a system, and with every system when there are faults it can create issue to the entire project. We didn't let any issues get in our way, though! We learned that the most inexperienced of girls can create a great idea and great app!

What's next for Where's Our Bus App?

We hope to get our app into the hands of the kids and parents who struggle with the bus antics. I believe if we can get our ideas out to administrations, we can take this app very far. I believe that other app creates solution to a long term problem that everyone faces. Below we have both versions of the app ready to download! The bus riders' version is the first link and the bus drivers' is the second

Built With

• mit-app-inventor