## Inspiration

Swap was inspired by COVID-19 having an impact on many individuals’ daily routines. Sleep schedules were shifted, more distractions were present due to working from home, and being away from friends and family members was difficult. Our team wanted to create a solution that would help others add excitement to their quarantine routines and also connect them with their friends and family members again.

## What it does

Swap is a mobile application that allows users to swap routines with their friends, family members, or even strangers to try something new! You can input daily activities and photos, add an optional mood tracker, add friends, initiate swaps instantly, pre-schedule swaps, and even randomize swaps.

## How we built it

For this project, we created a working prototype and wrote the backend code on how the swaps would be made. The prototype was created using Figma. For writing the backend code, we used python and applications such as Xcode, MySQL, and PyCharm.

## Challenges we ran into

A challenge we ran into was determining how we would write the backend code for the app and what applications to use. Additionally, we had to use up some time to select all the features we wanted Swap to have.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

Accomplishments we’re proud of include the overall idea of making an app that swapped routines, our Figma prototype, and the backend coding.

## What we learned

We learned how to use Figma’s wireframing feature to create a working prototype and learned about applications (ex. MySQL) that allowed us to write backend code for our project.

## What's next for Swap

We want to finalize the development of the app and launch it in the app stores!
## Inspiration

memes have become a cultural phenomenon and a huge recreation for many young adults including ourselves. for this hackathon, we decided to connect the sociability aspect of the popular site "twitter", and combine it with a methodology of visualizing the activity of memes in various neighborhoods. we hope that through this application, we can create a multicultural collection of memes, and expose these memes, trending from popular cities to a widespread community of memers.

## What it does

NWMeme is a data visualization of memes that are popular in different parts of the world. Entering the application, you are presented with a rich visual of a map with Pepe the frog markers that mark different cities on the map that has dank memes. Pepe markers are sized by their popularity score which is composed of retweets, likes, and replies. Clicking on Pepe markers will bring up an accordion that will display the top 5 memes in that city, pictures of each meme, and information about that meme. We also have a chatbot that is able to reply to simple queries about memes like "memes in Vancouver."

## How we built it

We wanted to base our tech stack with the tools that the sponsors provided. This started from the bottom with CockroachDB as the database that stored all the data about memes that our twitter web crawler scrapes. Our web crawler was in written in python which was Google gave an advanced level talk about. Our backend server was in Node.js which CockroachDB provided a wrapper for hosted on Azure. Calling the backend APIs was a vanilla javascript application which uses mapbox for the Maps API. Alongside the data visualization on the maps, we also have a chatbot application using Microsoft's Bot Framework.

## Challenges we ran into

We had many ideas we wanted to implement, but for the most part we had no idea where to begin. A lot of the challenge came from figuring out how to implement these ideas; for example, finding how to link a chatbot to our map. At the same time, we had to think of ways to scrape the dankest memes from the internet. We ended up choosing twitter as our resource and tried to come up with the hypest hashtags for the project.
A big problem we ran into was that our database completely crashed an hour before the project was due. We had to redeploy our Azure VM and database from scratch.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were proud that we were able to use as many of the sponsor tools as possible instead of the tools that we were comfortable with. We really enjoy the learning experience and that is the biggest accomplishment. Bringing all the pieces together and having a cohesive working application was another accomplishment. It required lots of technical skills, communication, and teamwork and we are proud of what came up.

## What we learned

We learned a lot about different tools and APIs that are available from the sponsors as well as gotten first hand mentoring with working with them. It's been a great technical learning experience. Asides from technical learning, we also learned a lot of communication skills and time boxing. The largest part of our success relied on that we all were working on parallel tasks that did not block one another, and ended up coming together for integration.

## What's next for NWMemes2017Web

We really want to work on improving interactivity for our users. For example, we could have chat for users to discuss meme trends. We also want more data visualization to show trends over time and other statistics. It would also be great to grab memes from different websites to make sure we cover as much of the online meme ecosystem.
## Inspiration

Being a student isn't easy. There are so many things that you have to be on top of, but it can't be difficult to organize your study sessions effectively. We were inspired to create Breaks Without Barriers to provide students with a mobile companion to aid them in their study sessions.

## What it does

Our app has several features that can help a student plan their studying accordingly, such as a customizable to-do list as well as a built-in study and break timer. It also holds students accountable for maintaining their mental and physical well-being by periodically sending them notifications -- reminding them to drink some water, check their posture, and the like. In the hustle and bustle of schoolwork, students often forget to take care of themselves!

We also incorporated some fun elements such as a level-up feature that tracks your progress and shows where you stand in comparison to other students. Plus, the more you study, the more app themes you unlock! You are also given some personalized Spotify playlist recommendations if you prefer studying with some background music.

Students can connect with each other, by viewing each other's profiles and exchanging their contact information. This allows students to network with other students, creating an online community of like-minded individuals.

## How we built it

We split our group into sub-teams: one for front-end development and another for back end-development. The front-end team designed the proposed app user-interface using Figma, and the back-end team created functional software using Python, Tkinter, SpotifyAPI, and twilio technologies.

The main framework of our project is built with Tkinter and it is composed of 3 programs that interact with each other: backend.py, frontend.py and login.py. Frontend.py consists of the main GUI, while backend.py is called when external functions are needed. Login.py is a separate file that creates a login window to verify the user.

## Challenges we ran into

This was actually the first hackathon for all four of us! This was a new experience for us, and we had to figure out how to navigate the entire process. Most of us had limited coding knowledge, and we had to learn new softwares while concurrently developing one of our own. We also ran into issues with time -- given a period of 36 hours to create an entire project, we had troubles in spreading out our work time effectively.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of creating an idea that was oriented toward students in helping them navigate their trials. We're also just proud of successfully completing our very first hackathon!

## What's next for Breaks Without Barriers

In the future we plan to implement more features that will connect individuals in a much more efficient way, including moderated study sessions, filtered search and an AI that will provide users with studying information. We also want to further develop the spotify function and allow for music to be played directly through the api.