## Inspiration

Time and time again, calendar apps have shown to not be effective, at least not for more than a week. Essence was founded from the idea that there is a better way to organize your daily necessities.

## What it does

Essence is a user-friendly manager that helps keep people on top of their eating, drinking, and sleeping schedules. It helps people with chaotic schedules make sure that they're living healthy lifestyles with reminders, achievements, streaks, and more.

## How we built it

We did our coding on GitHub, using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React. Our group of 4 was assigned different roles which would allow our workflow to be smoother.

## Challenges we ran into

One challenge that we ran into was that we knew that the algorithm of calendar apps weren't effective and that we wanted to change them, but we couldn't figure out how. How could we create something that ensures users to get around to eating, drinking, and sleeping? We actually got our inspiration from Duolingo. Duolingo does a great job of keeping their members engaged by over-rewarding them after completing a lesson. Companies like Snapchat and Duolingo also have a streak system, if the user didn't do a specific task that day, they're streak of however long, is now gone. We thought to apply a similar concept by rewarding the user with awards and special icons, while applying the fear of losing their streak which restarts their progress to achieve the more exclusive prizes.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud to say that we developed a fully functional water intake counter, our persistent efforts through out these last couple of days, and our idea for an interactive agenda for daily necessities.

## What we learned

One of the members in the group didn't know how to code on GitHub since they were familiar with Replit, so throughout the project, they were learning React while creating their project.

## What's next for Essence

The next milestone that we seek to achieve with Essence is to expand our audience by providing a bigger variety of opportunities. Very soon, the eating and sleeping parts will be set up with fully functioning counters, and slightly altered to be a little more user-friendly.
## Inspiration

Given the current circumstances surrounding COVID-19, most people are working/studying from home. This application was developed to help users keep track of the tasks to be done, stay motivated throughout their day, and remember to take breaks.

## What it does

This colourful dashboard is intended to help users stay on top of the tasks they need to accomplish in an encouraging and healthy manner. Each user must enter their email in order to proceed to their personal dashboard which contains the following widgets.

## ***(i) Inspirational Message***

A randomly selected inspirational message is displayed to the user at the top of the web page. This little boost of energy helps users stay motivated to complete their to-do lists.

## ***(ii) Clock and Calendar***

A clock and a calendar are displayed on the left side to ensure that users have access to the current date and time as they plan the tasks that they need to accomplish.

## ***(iii) Task List***

The task list is positioned at the center of the web page. Users have the option of creating new tasks by specifying a title, a description, and a category. The possible categories are work, school, friends and family, and self-care. They help users keep a boundary between their professional and personal lives. Once a user's task has been accomplished, it can be checked off.

## ***(iv) Recipe Section***

In order to reiterate the importance of self-care, the last section of the web page displays a random recipe which the users can execute during their free time.

## How we built it

* A frontend built with React and Typescript
* Server code managed by Apollo and Express.js
* A MongoDB database
* Lots of love <3

## Challenges we ran into

We originally wanted to display recipes from a general data source but we were not able to find an adequate free provider. Instead, we took 5 recipes from our personal collections and uploaded them to our database.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

This was a first hackathon experience for all team members. We are proud to have participated and conceived our first "hack"!

## What we learned

This was Delphine's first JavaScript, Typescript, Node.js experience so she learned a lot about being a full stack developer in a short period of time. She has a promising future!
This was our first hackaton ever. As perfectionists, we had to accept that our project may not be pristine but an acceptable MVP. After a weekend of ~~pain~~ learning, we're quite pleased with the final result.

## What's next for The Caring Task List

Potential next steps could include a notification system to help users stay on track during the day, integrations with social media apps, and maybe even a reward system for checking off those tasks!
# We'd love if you read through this in its entirety, but we suggest reading "What it does" if you're limited on time

## The Boring Stuff (Intro)

* Christina Zhao - 1st-time hacker - aka "Is cucumber a fruit"
* Peng Lu - 2nd-time hacker - aka "Why is this not working!!" x 30
* Matthew Yang - ML specialist - aka "What is an API"

## What it does

It's a cross-platform app that can promote mental health and healthier eating habits!

* Log when you eat healthy food.
* Feed your "munch buddies" and level them up!
* Learn about the different types of nutrients, what they do, and which foods contain them.

Since we are not very experienced at full-stack development, we just wanted to have fun and learn some new things. However, we feel that our project idea really ended up being a perfect fit for a few challenges, including the Otsuka Valuenex challenge!

Specifically,

>
> Many of us underestimate how important eating and mental health are to our overall wellness.
>
>
>

That's why we we made this app! After doing some research on the compounding relationship between eating, mental health, and wellness, we were quite shocked by the overwhelming amount of evidence and studies detailing the negative consequences..

>
> We will be judging for the best **mental wellness solution** that incorporates **food in a digital manner.** Projects will be judged on their ability to make **proactive stress management solutions to users.**
>
>
>

Our app has a two-pronged approach—it addresses mental wellness through both healthy eating, and through having fun and stress relief! Additionally, not only is eating healthy a great method of proactive stress management, but another key aspect of being proactive is making your de-stressing activites part of your daily routine. I think this app would really do a great job of that!

Additionally, we also focused really hard on accessibility and ease-of-use. Whether you're on android, iphone, or a computer, it only takes a few seconds to track your healthy eating and play with some cute animals ;)

## How we built it

The front-end is react-native, and the back-end is FastAPI (Python). Aside from our individual talents, I think we did a really great job of working together. We employed pair-programming strategies to great success, since each of us has our own individual strengths and weaknesses.

## Challenges we ran into

Most of us have minimal experience with full-stack development. If you look at my LinkedIn (this is Matt), all of my CS knowledge is concentrated in machine learning!

There were so many random errors with just setting up the back-end server and learning how to make API endpoints, as well as writing boilerplate JS from scratch.

But that's what made this project so fun. We all tried to learn something we're not that great at, and luckily we were able to get past the initial bumps.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

As I'm typing this in the final hour, in retrospect, it really is an awesome experience getting to pull an all-nighter hacking. It makes us wish that we attended more hackathons during college.

Above all, it was awesome that we got to create something meaningful (at least, to us).

## What we learned

We all learned a lot about full-stack development (React Native + FastAPI). Getting to finish the project for once has also taught us that we shouldn't give up so easily at hackathons :)

I also learned that the power of midnight doordash credits is akin to magic.

## What's next for Munch Buddies!

We have so many cool ideas that we just didn't have the technical chops to implement in time

* customizing your munch buddies!
* advanced data analysis on your food history (data science is my specialty)
* exporting your munch buddies and stats!

However, I'd also like to emphasize that any further work on the app should be done WITHOUT losing sight of the original goal. Munch buddies is supposed to be a fun way to promote healthy eating and wellbeing. Some other apps have gone down the path of too much gamification / social features, which can lead to negativity and toxic competitiveness.

## Final Remark

One of our favorite parts about making this project, is that we all feel that it is something that we would (and will) actually use in our day-to-day!