Inspiration

As a result of the current situation, the COVID-19 pandemic, our fellow family and friends are in a state of urgency. As of right now, the problem is that we have not been able to find a cure for COVID-19. With lockdowns happening everywhere, people are staying at home, quarantined, we realized that the world is in a dire situation and requires a lot of help. So, we (three high school students) decided to help out by creating a web app.

What It Does

COVID-HEAL encompasses many different and helpful functionalities:

•Built-In Artificial Intelligence that will detect when you are touching your face when on your computer and then notify you. This functionality works even in the background and is accurate at catching when you are picking your nose. 

•The latest news about the COVID-19 virus based on your location.

•A live meter of the number of cases, deaths, and recoveries.

•A relax page that takes away the "corona-anxiety" that everyone is getting. This page includes light-hearted jokes and memes, special music that is proven to heal disease, and motivational quotes. On top of that, this page provides helpful tips and strategies credited by nurses and doctors to help you stay healthy at home. 

How We Built It

This app is built using many languages and frameworks. The frontend is built with HTML, CSS, JQuery, and Bootstrap and the backend is built using Node.js. The frameworks and APIs we used were Tensorflow, Smartable, Bootstrap, Express.js and Forismatic. These languages & frameworks allowed us to make the web app responsive, use accurate data on COVID-19, and effectively use Artificial Intelligence.

Since we couldn’t meet each other, we planned through voice chats & voice calls. For the version control system, we used Git, and we deployed the web app using Heroku.

We decided to divide and conquer when building the app in order to use our time efficiently. Labdhi worked on a majority of the frontend, which involved designing the web app. Ashay worked on the backend and Artificial Intelligence feature, which involved implementing the Machine Learning models. Sohum worked with the APIs that gave us data on news, statistics, and memes.

Challenges We Ran Into

We found that it was a bit difficult planning & coding when we weren’t able to see each other in person, but we became flexible and learned to use Google Docs, voice calls, and Git.

Often, we came into issues when we weren’t able to merge/combine our code without conflicts. We solved this problem by using Git and using an iterative process when combining our code.

Accomplishments That We Are Proud Of

Within 4 days, we accomplished many coding feats and incorporated unique features. We were able to use machine learning models that could effectively detect when someone touches their face. We were able to pull data from numerous sources using APIs and display this information. Most importantly, we were able to deploy the web app, obtain a custom domain name for the app, covidheal.org, and spread awareness.

What We Learned

Throughout the 4 days we worked on COVID-HEAL, we had the opportunity to learn a lot. Coding-wise, we sharpened our knowledge on the application development process, from brain-storming to deploying. We learned how to effectively use Git to develop a web app. We also learned how to deploy the app on Heroku and add a custom domain name to the app.

Along with that, we learned how to use our coding skills to help out and spread awareness. We got to ask people what they are really in need of to fight against COVID-19. With the current situation, no one holds an antidote to save COVID-19 patients and that has caused a lot of unnecessary fear. We made it our goal to take this fear away, and provide a sense of positiveness and security to people around the world. This is a new and unique idea different from the existing media already in place because it gives a positive vibe rather than a cynical one.

What's Next For COVID-HEAL

Even though our web app is already up and running, there are several future steps we have in mind. We hope to make this web app more specific & interactive in future versions. The website can be made more specific to the user by giving more local news such as events occurring in the users hometown that are related to the coronavirus. More information about clean practices that limit the spread of the virus for people in quarantine would be beneficial as well as more references to numbers that can be called for further questions about the virus. Also, we believe that adding more at-home precautions and treatments would spark a lot of interest.

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