USMA SPACE

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zhOwBL_c7pgcV5C_uDAOiKFa-HGwumGs/view?usp=sharing

https://make.powerapps.com/e/Default-074f2144-da7a-4697-9717-c3ce778c2710/canvas/?utm_source=office&utm_medium=app_launcher&utm_campaign=office_referrals&action=edit&app-id=%2Fproviders%2FMicrosoft.PowerApps%2Fapps%2F7ec6e68c-3c46-4e0e-8943-4eb5e1132e99

1. Our challenge was to develop a mobile application that provides useful information about solar irradiance to the general public. To accomplish this mission, We investigated two different programming tools: Power Apps and Flutter.

2. We decided to use Power Apps because of the ease it gave us when developing the application compared to the flutter tool. Also, because it was already available to USMA Student.

3. We faced several difficulties in extracting the data from the NASA Power website from PowerApps. Our API Connection methodology needed to be improved.

4. For the reason mentioned in the previous point, the information from NASA Power was downloaded into an Excel file in order to display the information in PowerApps, connecting it directly to the excel data.

The application allows the user to select for what purposes he desires to use it, wether to gather information for buying solar panels, to compare his results with existing data and sharing his own measurements, or simply for people who want to learn more about the topic.

Afterwards, the user selects which parameters he or she desires to visualize, along with the time period and temporal resolution of the desired data. Then, the application accessess the POWER API, retrieves the solicited data, and presents it in forms of graphs and general average information. The user is allowed to change the desired parameters, temporal resolution and time period to will, as long as it fits withing the constraints of operation of the POWER API.

If the user is a solar panel owner, he or she also has the ability to share his or her own measurements, so that both NASA and the public can have close-up feedback of current users' experience.

We used NASA's Prediction of Worldwide renewable Energy Resources (POWER) web services portal API, pubicly accessible through the following link: https://power.larc.nasa.gov/

It’s being quite a ride! A true challenge, as the name of the event suggests.

All of our members are university students studying careers that are not directly connected to programming or software developing; therefore, taking on this challenge has moved us out of our comfort zone and led us to adventure in new skills.

To select wich challenge to tackle, each member of the team voted for 1 out of 3 of proposed challenges. "You Are My Sunshine" was the most voted for.

Nowadays, it's a well-known idea that we need to take care of our planet, and that includes opting for environment friendly energy sources. The benefit of solving this challenge is that it helps promote the embracing of renewable energy as a viable way of supporting our energy needs. We'd like solar panels to be more common everywhere, and therefore we want the relevant information to be pubicly and easily available to anyone who desires it.

To approach the challenge we began by proposing potential tools to develop the application. We first proposed Flutter SDK and Microsoft Power Apps, and developed in parallel using both tools. After trying out both, we decided to centered our efforts on using MS Power Apps due to it's simplicity and previously possessed knowledge. We also had to familiarize with the POWER API.

We'd like to thank our professor Angel Arcia for his constant support and all the knowledge eh shared with us.

NASA's Prediction of Worldwide renewable Energy Resources (POWER) web services portal API, pubicly accessible through the following link: https://power.larc.nasa.gov/

Google's Flutter Documentation: https://flutter.dev/docs

Numerous tutorials on API usage, programming with Flutter SDK and developing with MS Power Apps.

#panama #programming #sunshine #sun

This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.