Inspiration
As UMass Lowell students, we are frequently exposed to a busy urban environment. In such places where people are hustling around from place to place, sometimes it's easy to overlook some of the minor issues in your community. Maybe there's a broken street lamp you've noticed that has been out for a while. Perhaps the situation is more dangerous, like an ice patch or a downed telephone wire. There's no doubt that if these issues were fixed, it would make the community all that much better. However, in the daily hustle of busy lives, it's near impossible to expect that the city's workers are able to find every little hazard across the city, nor is it reasonable to expect that a bystander will actively look for a phone number to call about a burnt out light bulb. City Echo aims to provide an easy way that everyday people can get their voices heard in places it matters without any of the hassle.
What it does
City Echo is a platform that everyday people can communicate directly with others who can fix the problems in their community. For example, say someone notices that a street light is out in the neighborhood. This person may be concerned about that since they often work late and have to walk home alone in the dark. No matter how scared, it's hard to imagine that they would decide to call the department of public works and talk to either robots or disinterested employees, so they might suffer through the inconvenience. City Echo makes it easy to bring to light (pun intended) these types of situations to people that can actually fix them. By using the app developed for the android platforms, people can quickly see all the pending actions that are taking interest in the community, whether it be fixing a street lamp or cleaning up a sidewalk. If the person doesn't see an issue posted they want fixed, they can easily submit their own form for review. Someone in DPW administration could then easily log into the admin page on the website and view these problems that need to be taken care of.
How we built it
Most, if not all, of the backend is written the the Django framework, which consists of python. We take advantage of django's seamless integration with SQLite database and RESTful endpoints to make a simple yet powerful web application to host data. The "admin" of a city will log in via the website to view all the issues reported in the area by concerned citizens. Members of the community are able to use a simple android application to submit their issues. This was built using Android Studio. The android application seamlessly grabs data from the Django server to display all the issues in their area.
Challenges we ran into
We all were very knowledgeable, but all in separate fields. It was a bit of a challenge to try to break up work based off skill because our skills were so broad. Eventually, half of us focused on the android app with the backend and UI design, and the other half on setting up Django and creating algorithms that assist in an admins choice of an issue. Django was also relatively new to all of us, so it was a bit of a learning curve even to the end.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of the breadth of skills we displayed. We started a web server, created a RESTful API, implemented a database schema, and created an android app. For four people in 25 hours, we are very proud to be able to present such an expanse project.
What we learned
We learned a lot about Django framework, as well as Git. There's hardly a time where a group of people can work together without merge conflicts, but we always leave knowing more than when we came in.
What's next for City Echo
The possibilities of City Echo's future is only limited by the developers imagination. City Echo could be setup in any city, state, or even country around the globe. Elements could be added to each user submission such as a description, severity level, a picture, or more. Clearly, the possibilities are endless.
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