UnityBridge

Inspiration

The devastation left in the wake of hurricanes can be overwhelming, not just for the affected communities, but also for the first responders who are tasked with providing aid and support. Inspired by the desire to streamline communication and enhance the efficiency of rescue operations, UnityBridge was born. This project is meant to revolutionize Emergency Management by providing assistant with crucial, real-time and verified updates. Based on our research, local responders are in dire need of assessing the risks of civilian and infrastructure safety.

What it does

UnityBridge is a web application designed to improve emergency response efforts post-hurricane. Residents can mark their evacuation status—whether they're evacuating or not—providing vital real-time data to first responders, along with info of any companions that stay back with them. This information allows rescue teams to prioritize their search efforts into precise and specific locations, ensuring that resources are allocated where they are needed most urgently and not wasted on unprepared rescue missions. The home page also serves as a real-time feed that can be filtered by a user's specific zip code. Local responders can update the feed with alerts to notify other responders and civilians of active or potential threats.

How we built it

For our project, we built the webapp using the Django framework. An all-batteries included software that allowed us to create data models and views with access control to display data into the respective pages. With the python-based framework, we were able to speed right into development. The web app is written entirely in Python, HTML, and CSS.

Challenges we ran into

As most of us haven't worked with a team at this level before, we ran into conflicting file versions in GitHub frequently that caused us to lose time in the development process. In the actual building, we faced challenges designing the back-end.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

A big accomplishment for this project was the resolving the ability to notify user's by their specific zip code. We are very proud to delete unnecessary noise from the chaos and focus ONLY on what is directly around the user. This can help streamline communication into faster responses or awareness.

What we learned

We learned that it is extremely hard to get crucial information when it is needed the most. From the responders we spoke with, they all find the lack of communication and updates creates further damage and risk even after the storm. That's why our mission was to centralize all local alerts and updates in one simple page.

What's next for UnityBridge

Given more time, we would love to have expanded features to include pet info, points of interest/safety, and a dynamic real-time heat map to show all warnings and their respective location. This can allow response team to not just organize effort but visualize the surrounded damage. Our hope is with a full app, families can be aware of their relatives conditions and the most up-to-date and complete data.