Inspiration
Having been an avid Model UN fanatic for a number of years, I have always been frustrated by the lack of information available on the web regarding this extraordinary extracurricular activity and the opportunities available to participate in it. The only method of finding new conferences is by word-of-mouth or snail-mail, with no central repository containing the information. The same goes for relative rankings, schools can brag about the quality of their team all they want, but there is no quantitative measure of the quality of MUN teams.
How it works
GavelRank brings together the dozens of Model United Nations conferences and teams into one accessible website where users can find new conferences to attend, see how they stack up against other schools, and advertise and host their own conferences.
Challenges I ran into
Creating a large, databased Ruby on Rails application from scratch is a daunting task, especially for a mere 24-hour period. Surprisingly, the most challenging part of this project was the scoring algorithm, not the complex application structure. We had to come up with an algorithm to accurately reflect both the reputation of a conference and value of an award in a single number for each team.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
Our proudest accomplishment is likely the integration of database variables into the Leaflet.js OpenStreetMap widget, which pulls the coordinates of event and school locations to place them on an interactive map.
What I learned
We all refined our skills in multiple areas, learning off of each other, including Ruby on Rails, Javascript, HTML and CSS.
What's next for GavelRank
We plan to solidify and expand our application to make it a viable tool for other MUN students and clubs to use and benefit from. GavelRank is an extremely beneficial tool for this specific community and we believe that our application can become the cornerstone of the online Model United Nations world.
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