Inspiration
Young Noah is hungry. Noah cannot eat food in the cafeteria. Noah wants to DoorDash, but has no friends who want to doordash with him. Noah also has no friends. Noah therefore must spend extra money and bring an entire car with one sandwich and eat by himself.
This scenario is fairly common in colleges(excluding the no friends part). Many people order by themselves, too tempted by hunger, and send for a driver to come and give their food to them. Mobile apps like DoorDash and UberEats have taken the world by storm, enabling quick access to food at any time a person wishes.
While it seems harmless to order by yourself, the effect of many individual orders add up. According to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, approximately 29% of CO2 emissions in the U.S are from transportation. In 2023, DoorDash alone accounted for approximately 3.6 billion pounds CO2. The mass amounts of carbon dioxide being sent into the atmosphere is shown by the European Movements and programs are crucial to spread awareness about the global silent killer.
What it does
Our application enables students to interact with other members of their campus efficiently and successfully create group orders in an effort to reduce greenhouse gases and harmful byproducts from vehicles. Our platform is currently aimed at the juniors and seniors of NCSSM Morganton, where "door-dashing" has become a common practice for many students when cafeteria dining is not an option for them. Untitled lets them create an account with their Google information and takes them to a page where multiple group orders are visible. Users can apply filters to narrow down their search and find specific orders that match what they are looking for.
After finding the most suitable group, students can view the host, their estimated time of order, and the payment method they require. Students can request permission to join the group and provide additional notes they want to let their host know. Upon acceptance, users are prompted to another page where the group order link is posted, enabling users to fill out their meal choices and add them to the official group order on DoorDash. After inputting their options, users can click "Done" to let the host know that they have finished their order. After clicking "Done", the user will be taken back to the home page where the other group orders are posted.
If the student cannot find a group with their preferences, a "Start New Group" button in the top right corner gives users the ability to start their group for others to join. As soon as the button is clicked, a new screen will emerge, prompting information from the new host to fill out. The user must input the place they are ordering from, their payment method, the time they will submit the order, and the group order link before creating the group. After creating, they will be redirected to the original homepage and wait for requests.
The permission requests are sent via email from the user to the host. The host has the power to accept or deny the order, and no reason must be given for cancellation. Since the app is meant for students living on campus together, there is a trust system involved in paying people back. The host owner agrees to pay for the meal, and the guests in the group agree to pay the host back in whatever payment method they require. Emails will be provided for guests and hosts after acceptance to communicate with each other via Google Chat.
By having a platform where students can interact with each other and order together, greenhouse gases emitted from vehicles can be reduced to a large extent. According to Statista, as of 2023, over 2 billion orders have been placed on DoorDash alone, emphasizing the growing issue of online orders contributing to the global greenhouse effect. Our platform helps mitigate the amount of pollutants entering our atmosphere and alleviates the effects of global warming. On a large scale, our application has the potential to save thousands of gallons of gasoline from being burned daily.
How we built it
We utilized HTML, CSS, Javascript, and the Django framework to construct our project. We used Django to create a local web server that other devices can connect to via the same network. HTML and CSS were used to style and display the data sent back to us by the server. Javascript was utilized to interpret the data both ways and send fetch requests to the server. We split the creation process into smaller segments that each member of the group could work on individually. We separated the frontend from the backend, but made sure all team members were in close communication with each other to ensure our programs could interact efficiently.
Challenges we ran into
Prior to tackling this project, none of us knew about Django and its framework. To complete this project efficiently, all four of us had to start from scratch and learn the fundamentals of Django before creating any code. Overcoming this massive hurdle was easily our largest challenge after entirely scrapping our original project. Once we had learned it, we had some difficulty installing the Google API Login, but we were able to quickly get past it and finish our front end to display exactly what we wanted the user to see.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We successfully created a connection between the frontend and the backend areas of our project, allowing effective and efficient data transfer between the two. We learned and developed a functional web server without any previous experience in Django. We split the project up into smaller portions that could be developed individually and simultaneously, with a successful attempt at combining everything in the end.
What we learned
Developing EcoGrouper proved to be a learning experience for all of us. Getting through Django tutorials, parsing data from the server and displaying it to users in frontend, and basic styling were all tasks we had never done before but were able to understand quickly throughout the design process. Our biggest takeaway was understanding the Django framework and urls to build a website. By learning this, we were able to prepare ourselves for even higher level applications to be used in real world situations. We also developed soft skills throughout our project such as delegating tasks properly for team efficiency.
What's next for EcoGrouper
Our application was originally meant to support specifically the students of NCSSM Morganton in reducing travel and costs. However, we can apply our app on a broader scale, providing students the ability to create other groups for weekend loops and going out to other restaurants. Our original plan, to integrate the DoorDash API so users could input their meals and see arrival time on the app, could be used as well in the future.
On a large scale, the exact same application currently would be extremely useful for colleges all around the world. Our step to reduce carbon emissions has the power to take hold in any community with a desire for a change. We hope that people will recognize the app’s potential to support our planet’s existence and ensure we protect our homes.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.