Awards & Nominations
Gathered has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
Global Nominee
SunTelii
High-Level Project Summary
We had developed a solution for "You are my sunshine" Challenge. The main problem was that data provided via POWER are not presented in a simple way for average, non-tech user. This causes limits for people who might find this data useful. We created a mobile app, which shows those data on simple charts. To make it easier to analyze we added an onboarding section in order to present how our application can be used and to explain basic terms. We discovered four main types of users who might be highly interested in our app. We generate solutions for each of them. We find our project important, because it has potential to increase interest and understanding of renewable sources.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
About our process
We used a Design Thinking workflow, which is focused on users needs. We analyzed provided information and defined who is people who might use this kind of data. As it was mentioned in a challenge description the app should be understandable to an average user, but we wanted to specify traits of our target group. We defined 4 personas:
1. Main group (those who can analyze data easily): Tech Individuals or Employees of
enterprises, research centers and government offices, whose analysis is used for urban planning or creating new technologies compatible with sustainable development.
2. Owners of solar panels
3. Farmers and gardeners
4. SmartHome owners
According to that we define our main problem: Data provided by NASA via POWER are not present in an intuitive and comfortable way for an average, non-tech user. This causes limits for people who will find this data useful. Next step was brainstorming, we generated ideas and selected which ones we can develop in two days. Then we started prototyping and developing our project. We made two rounds of testing, where we provided final corrections.
About app
Basic feature of our app is showing requested data delivered by NASA in simple graphs. We decided to make Users Accounts to allow saving his preferences and history. The whole instruction of using the app and data is shown as you join the app for the first time, but we included an option to repeat the tutorial and attached links for more resources. User can find a destination whether he is interested in turning on GPS or by manually selecting it. In Data Filters he can set the temporal average, time period and types of data we are interested in like temperature or wind speed. We thought about saving presets for those who will search one location only. Thanks to data integration user can generate charts, compare them and ultimately anticipate future results. All of the data can be exported. We allow the user to download file in 3 formats on his device or share them by connecting with external apps. Views with settings typical for the application (Account Details, Settings, Contact and Info) have also been expanded. Unfortunately we couldn't measure all things. If we would have more time, we would provide RWD for mobile app, data export and saving charts to access them. However our idea has been good shown in our prototype. We encourage you to see it: https://www.figma.com/proto/mBQn9KReupoWmIv7Bp5AB4/NASA-Space-Apps-Challange-%7C-Team-Gathered-%7C-Prototype?page-id=6%3A1439&node-id=6%3A2154&viewport=241%2C48%2C0.16&scaling=min-zoom&starting-point-node-id=6%3A2154&show-proto-sidebar=1
About our mission
Every step towards renewable energy at a time when there is debate of the climate crisis is important. For example, if the whole world started using solar the world temperature would drop by 2'C, which would significantly postpone the predicted climate crisis. The problem has not only economic and political factors, but also the low level of knowledge about photovoltaics or renewable sources in general.
The data provided by NASA is of great value, but many more people could benefit from it if it were presented in a more accessible way, which would increase interest in renewable sources and popularize their use.
The solution is also important from an economic point of view, because individual smart-home users would save on device integration, and farmers would use predictions to better estimate their costs.
About our tools
Our application consists of two parts - backend and frontend. The first one is written in Python using the Django framework. We use it as an intermediate between data provided by POWER API and our frontend application. Backend infrastructure helps us to process data in a desired way, authenticate users and store for them their favourite query presets. Choice of Python for main backend technology enables us to easily extend this application in the future by implementing custom machine learning modules that will be responsible for prediction of selected features e.g. solar irradiance. Unfortunately the amount of time designated to complete the challenge was not sufficient enough to create and train a reliable model for predictions.
Frontend side of the project was created using React Native framework in order to achieve unified user experience on both Android and iOS systems.
Choice of modern technology stack and splitting application into two parts allow us to keep development and maintenance processes in the future as convenient and simple as possible.
Space Agency Data
We made use of data provided by NASA POWER project. Publicly available API gives access to many resources, however, our application lets user pick the most essential ones, focusing on indicators related with solar energy and efficiency of photovoltaic panels (e.g. temperature, wind).
Hackathon Journey
We enjoy working together during Space Apps Hackathon. That was a great experience to work at a project we all think is important for the world, together facing the issues we have met during our work. That makes us sure we want to be a team not only for this hackathon, but we want to continue our adventure. We chose this challenge because we all care about sustainability, and we knew we have all tools to develop a complete solution. We organise our work based on a design thinking method because it perfectly fits our challenge and helps us split tasks. We have met difficulties and tense moments when we were worried that we will not end our project on time, but in those moments we were focusing our energies on the problem and we were resolving them together, helping each order to find an alternative solution. This hackathon time taught us not only more about renewable energy, solar panels and insolation, but also how to deal with a "small crisis" at teamwork, when everybody has full hands, but without one of us the project will not be successful.
References
List all of the data, resources, and tools used in your project.
Technology: Django, React Native.
Resources: NASA POWER project - API service, maps - mapbox, informations from solar panel industry entrepreneur
Tools: PyCharm, WebStorm, Figma, Trello, Discord
Tags
#sun #application #django #react
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.