## Inspiration

As university students, we and our peers have found that our garbage and recycling have not been taken by the garbage truck for some unknown reason. They give us papers or stickers with warnings, but these get lost in the wind, chewed up by animals, or destroyed because of the weather. For homeowners or residents, the lack of communication is frustrating because we want our garbage to be taken away and we don't know why it wasn't. For garbage disposal workers, the lack of communication is detrimental because residents do not know what to fix for the next time.

## What it does

This app allows garbage disposal employees to communicate to residents about what was incorrect with how the garbage and recycling are set out on the street. Through a checklist format, employees can select the various wrongs, which are then compiled into an email and sent to the house's residents.

## How we built it

The team built this by using a Python package called **Kivy** that allowed us to create a GUI interface that can then be packaged into an iOS or Android app.

## Challenges we ran into

The greatest challenge we faced was the learning curve that arrived when beginning to code the app. All team members had never worked on creating an app, or with back-end and front-end coding. However, it was an excellent day of learning.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

The team is proud of having a working user interface to present. We are also proud of our easy to interactive and aesthetic UI/UX design.

## What we learned

We learned skills in front-end and back-end coding. We also furthered our skills in Python by using a new library, Kivy. We gained skills in teamwork and collaboration.

## What's next for Waste Notify

Further steps for Waste Notify would likely involve collecting data from Utilities Kingston and the city. It would also require more back-end coding to set up these databases and ensure that data is secure. Our target area was University District in Kingston, however, a further application of this could be expanding the geographical location. However, the biggest next step is adding a few APIs for weather, maps and schedule.
## Inspiration

We saw a short video on a Nepalese boy who had to walk 10 miles each way for school. From this video, we wanted to find a way to bring unique experiences to students in constrained locations. This could be for students in remote locations, or in cash strapped low income schools. We learned that we all share a passion for creating fair learning opportunities for everyone, which is why we created Magic School VR.

## What it does

Magic School VR is an immersive virtual reality educational platform where you can attend one-on-one lectures with historical figures, influential scientists, or the world's best teachers. You can have Albert Einstein teach you quantum theory, Bill Nye the Science Guy explain the importance of mitochondria, or Warren Buffet educate you on investing.

**Step 1:** Choose a subject *physics, biology, history, computer science, etc.*

**Step 2:** Choose your teacher *(Elon Musk, Albert Einstein, Neil Degrasse Tyson, etc.*

**Step 3:** Choose your specific topic *Quantum Theory, Data Structures, WWII, Nitrogen cycle, etc.*

**Step 4:** Get immersed in your virtual learning environment

**Step 5:** Examination *Small quizzes, short answers, etc.*

## How we built it

We used Unity, Oculus SDK, and Google VR to build the VR platform as well as a variety of tools and APIs such as:

* Lyrebird API to recreate Albert Einstein's voice. We trained the model by feeding it with audio data. Through machine learning, it generated audio clips for us.
* Cinema 4D to create and modify 3D models.
* Adobe Premiere to put together our 3D models and speech, as well to chroma key masking objects.
* Adobe After Effects to create UI animations.
* C# to code camera instructions, displays, and interactions in Unity.
* Hardware used: Samsung Gear VR headset, Oculus Rift VR Headset.

## Challenges we ran into

We ran into a lot of errors with deploying Magic School VR to the Samsung Gear Headset, so instead we used Oculus Rift. However, we had hardware limitations when it came to running Oculus Rift off our laptops as we did not have HDMI ports that connected to dedicated GPUs. This led to a lot of searching around trying to find a desktop PC that could run Oculus.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are happy that we got the VR to work. Coming into QHacks we didn't have much experience in Unity so a lot of hacking was required :) Every little accomplishment motivated us to keep grinding. The moment we manged to display our program in the VR headset, we were mesmerized and in love with the technology. We experienced first hand how impactful VR can be in education.

## What we learned

* Developing with VR is very fun!!!
* How to build environments, camera movements, and interactions within Unity
* You don't need a technical background to make cool stuff.

## What's next for Magic School VR

Our next steps are to implement eye-tracking engagement metrics in order to see how engaged students are to the lessons. This will help give structure to create more engaging lesson plans. In terms of expanding it as a business, we plan on reaching out to VR partners such as Merge VR to distribute our lesson plans as well as to reach out to educational institutions to create lesson plans designed for the public school curriculum.

 [via GIPHY](https://giphy.com/gifs/E0vLnuT7mmvc5L9cxp)
## Inspiration

Many students rely on cramming strategies such as highlighting, rewriting, and rereading their notes the night before an exam. These strategies are not very effective for long-term learning, as shown in Dunlonsky et al's psychology research paper, "Strengthening the Student Toolbox: Study Strategies to Boost Learning". These common studying strategies can lead to students misconceiving

## What it does

This mobile app can take in student schedules, from the classes they take and their respective assignments/tests for each one, to the time blocks of students when they rest vs when they work well (partially implemented).

## How we built it

Flutter for the front/back end, SQLite for database management.

## Challenges we ran into

Learning Flutter, connecting to the database with it.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of/ What we learned

Basics of Flutter frontend, integration of SQLite with Flutter mobile apps, development of algorithms regarding user scheduling.

## What's next for Plan2Learn

Upcoming features may include:

* More visual graphical user interface (GUI) for scheduling rest time blocks
* Turns on do not disturb automatically during work blocks
* Rework databases connection to improve querying
* Exporting final study schedule to Google Calendar