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Modules
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Community map
Inspiration
One of our biggest inspirations for EcoLeap were the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are 17 different goals the UN drafted in order to help the world become a more sustainable, equitable, and fair world in the future. These goals inspired us to create EcoLeap, a website that takes these goals to heart and teaches people to do the same and protect our world. The goals that we thought were the most important that we incorporated into this website are goals 3 (Good Health and Well-being), 4 (Quality Education), 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and 13 (Climate Action).
What it does
EcoLeap is an educational website that we use to empower individuals with access to quality knowledge about sustainability, clean energy, responsible consumption, and climate action. The website contains modules that have various videos and interactive presentations on reducing food waste, reading and analyzing nutrition labels, choosing sustainable clothing, information about renewable sources and the sustainability they provide, and working with government policies. We also have a DIY and Clean Energy tab on the website where there is information on how you can use solar panels to make your own electricity and how to conduct home audits to preserve and save as much energy as you can. In the Community & Map tab, we provided a map that shows sources of clean/dirty water, sustainable businesses, repair workshops, and farmers' markets.
How we built it
We built this project using HTML, Javascript, and CSS. This decision was made in the hopes for multiple device compatibility. This project started with just a base of the website, but as the project was developed, more features were added in the form of new tabs. We ended up using the Gemini API for more complex features such as nutrition label analysis and recipe generation. Additionally, we used leaflet (openstreetmap) to create the community map. Finally, we used databases from India's Government to plot data on the map.
Challenges we ran into
Some of the challenges that we ran into while creating EcoLeap were problems with hosting the website through Firebase, problems with the design of the map and the community hub discussion forum, and we also had problems with providing accurate data in an informative and helpful way inside our videos and slideshows. After thinking hard about it and looking through our code and problems, we managed to put together solutions to our problems successfully. Additionally, we found that sometimes, our calculators are not accurate and we provided warnings for that purpose.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Some of the accomplishments that we are proud of is how this project, EcoLeap, showcased our ability to provide solutions to real-world problems, instead of something simple and hypothetical. Instead, we were able to provide far more realistic help that could potentially help in our lifetimes instead of something that is unlikely to be used commonly. With this website, we want to be able to showcase that there are solutions to many problems in the world, especially when it comes to making a sustainable world.
What we learned
Through the creation of EcoLeap, we learned far more than just sustainability, the topic we are trying to put together. When creating the work and collaborating as a team, we understood the importance of seamlessly integrating our work and ideas and using them to improve our website to its fullest potential in order to maximize the attention it receives. In a positive light, we learned teamwork and communication skills, something that will be effective for us not just in hackathons but in our futures and careers.
What's next for EcoLeap
With EcoLeap, we plan on continually improving this website and adding more features regularly so that we can help support the sustainability measures that the UN has created. Along with educational content and tools designed to boost daily lives and convenience, we also plan on adding more tools and solutions to address problems the world has, and sustainability to the community. Finally, we will be looking to improve the size of our community so we can help add more information that is crowdsourced, collectively helping everyone navigate the world in a sustainable and safe way.
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