Trimester Timeline

Trimester Timeline is a scheduling and data aggregation platform where users can share how long and difficult assignments are, ensuring they when know the most convient time to start these are.

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Inspiration

The main inspiration for our app was DevSoc's project NoTangles, which allows you to plan out your uni degree as a whole. We wanted to build a version of that for planning your individual trimester, which was especially necessary given the frustration many people have with trimesters

What it does

Trimester Timeline allows students to upload how long certain assignments took them and comment on any difficult hurdles or challenges associated with that assignment. This data is then used to create a schedule for users showing when an assignment should be started. This solves the inconvenience associated with manually asking everyone in the year above you who completed the course last term when to start the assignment.

How we built it

The process of building the app was marked by a brief stage of planning, in which me and my team mate threw back and fourth ideas, then eventually drew up a very basic rendtition of the UI. This was followed by two days of programming, building up the frontend and backend at the same time. Frontend development was expediated due to the use of material ui and react, although it still took up the vast majority of the time. The decision to use typescript was a minor blunder. Although I find it benifical in long-term projects, it ended up slowing down development in the short term. The express backend was comparatively simple to make.

Challenges we ran into

On the first day of the challenge, one of our three team members did not show up which led to developoment being slower then ideal. Another team member dropped out mid development, and they had developed the database in PostgreSQL. Since I do not know PostgreSQL or the ORM they had used to develop it, I ended up doing the entire backend from scratch which was a major impedement to development. However, I was still able to complete the backend to a reasonable standard in spite of this.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The main thing I am proud of is the comprehensiveness of the app, as I believe both the frontend and backend were finished to an acceptable standard. Given this is my first hackathon, I was not necessarilly expecting to finish.

What we learned

Prior to developing this app, I had never used an external component library such as Material UI, but decided it was necessary to learn to accelerate development with only two people. While I am still far from an expert in MUI, I am much more confident then I was before. This was also my first time working with an AI API such as Open-AI's API, and I am able to use this. Challenges such as my entire team dropping out has also improved my mental adversity, and I believe I will be much more prepared for future hackathons. I also learned the value of preparation, specifically in regard to non-coding work such as video editing. Video editing took up almost the entirety of my final day, as I spent a long duration of time trying to figure out what editor to use, then had to learn that editor.

What's next for Trimester Timeline

The next major step for Trimester Timeline is featuring exams in the schedule, and showing the time requried to study for these. This would provide a more accurate picture of when a student should start preparing academically.

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