UNSearch

The ultimate platform for analyzing and extracting data from the United Nation's resolutions.

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Inspiration

We wanted to create a platform that easily shared and displayed the resolutions, documents, and agendas of the United Nations. This user friendly site breaks down the complex and formal syntax of the posted reports, and relates the key ideas in simple language, allowing both UN representatives and everyday people to become educated on topics and efforts that are changing the world.

What it does

Our API uses natural language processing to step through UN documents to extract the key ideas. We utilized d3.js, a javascript library, to produce dynamic, interactive data visualizations for our web program. Users can access these interactive graphs by signing in with their Google account, creating a unique space for them to explore the data.

Challenges we ran into

Everyone on the team was working with new APIs, programming languages, and/or software programs, such as Google's natural language processor, React's web development software, Firebase, and JavaScript's libraries for timeseries, d3, and web components. We had trouble finding time to implement all the ideas and plans we had for our program, especially with the technological learning curve. And last but not least, our domain didn't process in time for our website to have a custom URL, so we had to stick with the default firebase one.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We made a natural language processing API for a website in the span of 36 hours! Who would have though that was possible!?!? We did a great job delegating responsibilities and splitting into a front end and a back end development group, allowing for higher specialization and an exciting combination into our final submission.

What's next for UNSearch

In the future, UNSearch could turn into UNDiscover, an online interactive forum where people could explore the data and anonymously leave comments and hold discussions with other users. Furthermore, we would implement machine learning to step through the documents and determine similarities and hostilities between different countries and their viewpoints. This would facilitate increased efforts to promote camaraderie and cooperation between conflicting nations.

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