DineSmart

Showcasing the list of APIs
Login panel
Login panel with incorrect password including the console
Showcasing the list of available cafeterias/restaurants in addition to the line-up/queue of people
The UI for leaving a review and queueing up

Inspiration

Having a smooth dining experience is important in our school life, especially for those who are not familiar with the new school. We came up with the hackathon idea that help newcomers to university/college familiarize themselves with their food options, get informed about waiting time, and solve the problem of choosing the most suitable canteen, making the transition process of freshmen to the new semester smoother.

What it does

DineSmart can display all food options inside a university campus, including the average cost and number of people waiting in line. DineSmart is also able to allow users to leave reviews, ratings, and register queueing status on certain food options.

How we built it

To build an interactive user interface, we choose React as our frontend framework. We chose C# as our backend language because David is experienced in it. The backend fetches data from MongoDB deployed on the cloud and rendered at the frontend; the frontend accepts the user's review, user's rating as well as waiting time status and sends them to the backend for further data processing.

Challenges we ran into

We encountered challenges when using Git to sync our project files, such as losing folders and difficulties in pushing/pulling, because both of us are not familiar with version control using Git. We also spend a lot of time on integrating frontend code with backend code due to CORS errors and some merge conflicts.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This is the first time Teng has attended a hackathon with 2 people group and David's first hackathon. We are proud of making such an impactful project with a limited time frame and team members.

What we learned

Both of us are now more familiar with C# and React development right now. We also learned how to schedule our time in the hackathon and make the best use of it.

What's next for DineSmart

To enhance DineSmart's influence, we intended to add more university/college food options into DineSmart. We also intended to implement more features, like multi-language support which is useful for international students, an integrated map guide which is useful for larger campuses, and rich-text reviews which will make the reviews of particular food options more vivid.