Market Safe

A COVID - 19 related hackathon project that allows users to see AI reccomendations to go to some store and reserve a spot to go to that store, and also functions as a contact tracing site.

As the COVID - 19 pandemic fades out, we will all eventally have to step out of our houses, whether it is to get groceries or medicine. However, we need to do it in a way that is carefully planned, or else we might face a second wave. Market Safe is a web application that allows customers and local businesses in the community connect to plan in person visits. It also functions as a contact tracing app! Look below to see all the great things that can be done with Market Safe!

Customers can...

search for businesses in the community.
view a business.
get an AI reccomendation about the business using data and machine learning.
reserve a spot to go to that store on a certain day.
ask the application to send alerts to people they have been in contact with in the case of testing positive.
view alerts on whether they may have been in contact with someone who tested positive.

Businesses can...

view and edit analytical data used by our machine learning algorithm.
see who has reserved a spot to visit their store in person.
open or shut down their stores.
view alerts on whether they may have been in contact with someone who tested positive.

Inspiration

The idea for Market Safe came from the current situation in the community, especially after hearing how various stores have different standards to prevent the virus. I wanted to keep the community safe, while still keeping local businesses and stores up and running.

How I Built It

Market Safe is a Django web application written in Python, HTML, and CSS. Although many of the files were precreated by Django, I made all the templates and static files, as well as the views and urls for each application. In addition, I use Bootstrap display alerts. Last but not least, I used scikit-learn for the machine learning.

Challenges I Ran Into

This was my first time coding a fairly big project in Python, as I usually used Node.js. Because of this, I consistently got many errors involving Python syntax and Django usage. However, I was able to recover from all of these errors, and I believe it was a very good experience to code in a new language and a new way.

Accomplishments That I'm Proud Of

As I've said above, this was my first time coding a huge project in Python and Django. I'm proud of the fact that I was able to transition completely to Django, and was able to get past many of the errors involving Django and Python successfully. I believe that one of the best ways to learn a new activity is by doing it, and I agree that by having myself do Django, I learned a lot about it. In addition, this was my first project involving Machine Learning, and I am glad that I was able to implement the model first try without any errors.

What I Learned

Through this project, I learned the differences, benefits, and drawbacks between Django and Node.js. Although I am proficient in Node.js, by delving into Django, I now believe that Django has many more tools making it easier to code, especially about security and databases. In addition, this was my first time doing Machine Learning, and that was also a beneficial experience.

What's in the future for Market Safe?

allow customers to reserve a specific time slot rather than just a day.
allow businesses to customize the page that the customers see when they visit their site.
add more AI to help businesses create standards that will minimize the chance of spreading diseases.
incorporate a real database rather than the self-made database I used for this project.
allow customers to search for businesses that are near them first.

A Special Note to the Judges

From previous hackathon experience, I have always seen that people who do Machine Learning projects have a considerable advantage compared to those who don't. Why is this, though? After doing Machine Learning in this project, I realized that it only takes 10 lines of code, because you are just using a lot of the code that has already been written by others! If you would like to give me a prize for this project only because I did Machine Learning, I will say right now, I will refuse it. I urge the judges to please look at the creativity and the originality in the code (not just mine, but everyone's). Thank you.