Fischer Labs

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Inspiration

We wanted to bridge the gap between suppliers of chemicals and consumers as we felt that current solutions simply aren't good enough and were shocked at how anti user-friendly most websites like Sigma Aldrich are. Hence we wanted to make a central marketplace for the sale of chemicals with additional features.

What it does

Fischer Labs is a website that allows users to easily buy various chemicals while also learning more about them. Firstly, there is a database of more than a 100 of the most used compounds for commercial uses that is already a part of the website. Users can view these compounds in their individual pages and find out more about the compound's physical and chemical properties as well as the hazard and safety data for that compound. They are also able to add a select quantity of the compound directly to the cart. There is also an account creation and log in function to allow users to view past and current orders and to serve as a form of basic authentication. After logging in, users can upload a CSV file containing the list of chemicals that they want and their respective quantities. This data will then be processed and show on the page for users to ensure that they are ordering the correct chemicals and in the right amounts. There is also an admin page that can be used by the suppliers to view any current and past orders as well as to get access to basic analytics about the top purchases. The suppliers can also add and remove chemicals from the database and modify their quantities to restock the chemicals from the admin page. The data regarding the new chemicals are automatically fetched. Furthermore, when orders are accepted the quantities displayed in the inventory are automatically changed and orders that require a greater quantity of chemicals than what is currently available are rejected.

How we built it

We built Fischer Labs mainly through HTML, CSS and Python(and a teensy bit of JS and jQuery). We made use of a few libraries such as Flask and Pandas to help us with some of our necessary functions. We also made use of PubChem's PUG API to use information from their database and build up our inventory. Databases are stored on Amazon's DynamoDB and managed using the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI).

Challenges we ran into

Doing Full Stack development in such a short time frame proved to be a challenge especially for functions such as account creation, database scraping and doing proper web design.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are really proud that we were able to set up a functional database and having an account creation function. These were extremely difficult to set up in a short period of time and being able to overcome these challenges was endearing for us.

What we learned

We learnt how to design a functional website from scratch, to make use of a open source database to get access to information, to set up an account creation function within our website and to process CSV data

What's next for Fischer Labs

Making use of AI to enhance our analytics
Adding a requests page to allow users to suggest new chemicals
Adding recommended presets of chemical bundles
Aggregator: Compare prices from different suppliers to give consumers the best price