TestPlanner

Inspiration

As our team tried to come up with ideas for the Hackathon, we were really scattered and really did not now what to eventually make in the long run. However, our team members began to bring in a personal and universal feelings about tests and how Lehigh students were having one to three tests in the previous weeks. Clearly, having this many tests leads students to study, but some of our team members realized how hard it really is to manage your time wisely and actually set a certain time for studying. For this, we wanted to come up with something that can easily help students plan for their upcoming tests, where they will ultimately spend more time studying and less time organizing/planning tests and study days into apps like Google Calendar. Ultimately, with a better sense time management, there will be more room for individuals to spend on other important tasks during the day/week, such as homework and long term projects, and even activities run by clubs.

What it does do

Input: Takes in a day for the exam
Output: Calendar of the month, with the given days for studying (all within a grid)

How we built it

In order to start and build TestPlanner, we used the following resources:

VSCode (code)
Git (shared)
GitHub (shared network)
Language: Java
Figma (graphics)
Zoom (recording)
Devpost (submission)

Challenges we ran into

Initially, it was rough to start without everyone being on the same page when it came to having Git installed and the other applications for handling the Hackathon. Thanks to the presentation and the team members, we were able to do some research as to how to set it up and actually use the terminals when pushing/pulling.
In terms of starting our code, our challenge was to figure out how to separate TestPlanner into different functions, especially with the classes.
Once our classes/functions were established, we needed to establish what data members we needed as input and output. At first, almost 10 data members were created, however we needed to start simple with the user input and then increase the data given as we go along with the building of the code in order to actually understand the handling of the data more easily.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

At most, we are very excited that we were able to combine our different skills and effectively create a program under 24 hours.

What we learned

As a whole, we were able to really explore the foundations and workflow of Git and GitHub as we are only freshmen in college. As well, there were components of the code that were generally new to some team members, where different approaches taught to each other when solving a problem within the code.
The practice of coding from scratch was very different compared to Lehigh's CSE courses that would generally give you a foundation to build upon. Teammates found it hard but fun to realize the effort of starting from zero and actually making a program that has a true purpose behind it.

What's next for TestPlanner

Despite our high satisfaction in where we are for TestPlanner, we still believe that there is much more room for improvement and even additional "perks".

Potential Improvements

To make the app more customized to the experience at Lehigh, we would like to implement the office hours of each professor into the program. This would enable the user to see, depending on the given test information, whether or not the professor has office hours. If the office hours are within the days of the given calendar, then a zoom link will be provided.
In addition to adding office hours, there can be a social network form of this program, where students will be able to see exactly how many visitors there are for the professor's office hours. This can be implemented using a QR code, making it easy for both the user and the professors (that would help keep track of the count).
When it comes to the given calendar output, the program is limited to only providing certain days for studying, however, to make the program more personalized for the user, we would like to give the option of adding days to study for a certain test.