This is Gaggle! We (Simha K, Kayla C, Julia J and Laura P) made this for Hack the North 2020++ . It was made with HTML / CSS / Python using Flask, Pandas, Pandadsql, Bootstrap and Geocoder! Read more below!
As current undergraduate students with a broad exposure to opportunities like hackathons and design teas, we feel as though we missed out on similar experiences in high school and middle school simply due to lack of exposure and not knowing where to look for those opportunities. Additionally, for the events we did take part in starting or planning, it was always difficult to find a way to advertise to the right audience. The goal of our project is to create an easy way for event organizers to advertise enrichment opportunities and a convenient way for students to find events that align with their interest.
Gaggle is a platform where students and young adults can find, share, and attend local events. They can do this by searching the event, or by filtering through post tags. For example, a student who is interested in coding would be able to pick the “computer science” tag and be shown the local events (such as hackathons!) that would be related to it. Gaggle would also be a resource to students who are interested in scholarship opportunities, and looking to. Users would also be able to post events that they are affiliated with to reach a larger audience.
We made wireframes and screen mockups using figma. The front end of the web app was created using HTML/CSS, and the backend was coded with python using Flask as the framework.
We had a challenge with communicating and working with each other over the internet. We found that it was difficult to be on the same page at some points throughout the hackathon, and collaborate on problems we had with our code.
For most of us, this was our first or second hackathon so we definitely learned a lot over the past couple days. We started with brainstorming what the idea for our project should be and what were the key components that we wanted to include. We then made a rough design of the front end, and worked separately on the front and back end parts before combining them.
We learned how to collaborate with one another given the circumstances with the pandemic. Each member got to see and learn how a web app goes from ideation to the integration between the frontend and backend. We got to practice wireframing and creating prototypes in Figma, and learning how to code in python to create a functional backend to the app.
We think that this idea would be a great resource for students across Canada but obviously it still would need a lot of work before we are ready to turn it into a real website. In the future, we would love for the app to go beyond just STEM opportunities to include sporting events, art opportunities, and more.