From Missing Beats to Mapping Streets: My GIS Solution to Lost and Found for UC Irvine Students
Imagine that gut-wrenching moment when it hits you: you've misplaced something invaluable. That cold rush of panic, that sinking feeling – it’s not unique to you; we’ve all been there. Picture it: A sunny day at UC Irvine, and bam! Your AirPods are nowhere to be found. Hundreds of students experience losing personal items at UC Irvine.
Students with lost personal items primarily turn to UCI Reddit for lost and found posts which often go unnoticed due to the many other ongoing threads and conversations. I really wanted to figure this out, and I felt I had to do it using a geographic approach.
This is when the concept of ZotnFound took its first breath; a location-based solution designed to address the lost and found issues at UCI. It wasn't just a thought—it was a response to what many students wanted, a way to bring students together and help each other.
Image source: Imgur
A Small Start
When thinking of how to solve this issue on campus, it clicked! With the digital world at our fingertips, why not harness its power to create a dedicated space for students, like myself, to share about their lost items?
From a young age, I had always dreamt of using technology as a means to assist and make an impact on others. I realized that even though the world of tech has so much to offer, I'm just a second-year student with little knowledge of web and mobile development. My coursework hadn't yet touched upon these areas, and my hands-on knowledge was limited. I recognized my limitations in software development, but I wasn't going to let that stop me.
I began with what I knew: Instagram. I created a dedicated Instagram account for lost and found items at UC Irvine came to life. The response was overwhelming. In a short span, we garnered over 300 followers, reuniting more than 10 students with their lost possessions! It was heartening to witness personal anguish transform into a community-driven solution.
But popularity also brought difficulties. Every day, messages from students who were desperate to retrieve their lost belongings flooded my inbox. Even trying to sort through the flood of DMs, let alone post them all, was daunting. There had to be a better strategy since this approach was not scalable.
@ZotnFound Instagram Account
ZotnFound: From Vision to Reality
The potential of GIS has always captivated me. Its ability to capture, analyze, and present spatial data that can create endless opportunities. I wondered, "What if I can implement a GIS web app to help students more effectively find their lost belongings and help others?" Enter the concept of a GIS-based web app.
Instead of a one-man-show on Instagram, I came up with the concept and solution to create a self-service platform where students can post about their lost items. This revolutionizes the age-old issue of lost property by combining the accuracy of GIS with the intuitive user experience of modern web design.
This idea gave me the momentum and confidence to bring it to the 2023 UCI VenusHack as I was eager and determined to see it come to reality.
In the hackathon, I teamed up with three brilliant minds, we set out on our mission. The platform was constructed using select technologies: Leaflet for GIS Map, React.js to ensure a user-friendly frontend experience, and Firebase's Firestore for dependable data storage. Moreover, to bolster security, we integrated Firebase authentication. This authentication was specifically designed to allow only UC Irvine students to log in, ensuring the platform remained exclusive and secure for our campus community.
The journey had its share of difficulties. Our React-based app's integration of Leaflet presented a challenging learning curve. We struggled to achieve seamless performance, ensure smooth user interactions, and sync real-time data from Firestore to reflect on the map. Through determination and teamwork, we were able to succeed and our idea came to life as a fully functional platform in just 36 hours.
We won second place at the hackathon, which was recognition for our hard work through sleepless nights.
Zotnfound Earned 2nd Place at UCI VenusHack 2022
Continuing the Journey: Perfecting ZotnFound
Despite our commendable second-place win at the UCI VenusHack 2023, it became clear that ZotnFound had many imperfections. While the prototype was functional, a close inspection revealed numerous flaws and errors that prevented it from being deployment-ready. It was a humbling realization that success at a hackathon doesn't necessarily translate to real-world readiness.
Determined to bring ZotnFound to its full potential, I committed my entire summer to refining the web app. I explored new ground while leading our team, especially during deployment. My first attempt at correctly deploying a web application was on the AWS platform. AWS's complexity was difficult, but it provided a thorough learning experience. To perfect the frontend and backend of the web app, I carefully drafted every conceivable user story, foreseeing various user interactions and outcomes, to make sure our web app was flawless. This proactive approach played a crucial role in perfecting the web app and ensuring that it functioned faultlessly for our users.
The system for email notifications was one of the crucial elements we worked to perfect. On a platform where items are lost and found, immediate alerts are crucial. Making sure students promptly received emails about new posts was crucial to the platform's effectiveness. We finally streamlined the system after numerous tests and iterations, ensuring that users would always receive real-time updates.
Throughout the summer, our team worked hard to improve the user interface, speed up the backend, and fix endless bugs in frontend. Our goal was more than just building an app; we aimed to create a valuable tool for the UC Irvine student community.
After making these improvements, we eagerly reintroduced ZotnFound to the students. We promoted it around campus with stickers and enthusiasm, and the feedback was incredible. On the very first day, we received over 800 page views and 30 student sign-ups, showcasing the immense demand and potential of our platform.
Today, ZotnFound has over 100 student sign-ups and 50 posts about lost and found items, with nearly 10 students already reunited with their belongings. The path from a simple idea to a thriving platform was not without difficulties, but each hurdle and late-night coding session proved worthwhile.
Reflecting on this journey, I'm grateful to my hardworking team and the welcoming UC Irvine community. What started as a personal quest to solve a problem has evolved into a community-led initiative that demonstrates how technology can truly connect and support people.
ZotnFound.com main page.
Next Steps for ZotnFound
We intend to incorporate the Esri Leaflet API into the following stage of ZotnFound. Our goal is to create a heat map that clearly illustrates the hotspots on the campus of UC Irvine where items are frequently lost. This heat map will be a valuable tool for UCI officials as well as a visual reminder for students to avoid high-risk areas. With this information at hand, they can strategically place lost-and-found stations with the goal of reducing losses and accelerating the recovery process.
As a result of this improvement, we hope that ZotnFound will eventually progress from being just a platform for recovering lost items to a proactive preventive system that makes use of real-time data to reduce the frequency of lost items.
Esri Leaflet API heat map example from developers.arcgis.com/esri-leaflet/samples
GIS: Discovering a World of Opportunities
A conversation with Rosemary Boone, Sr Industry Marketing Manager for Education at Esri, at a recent UCI Career Fair introduced me to the vast world of the GIS. Rosemary's insights into Esri's numerous opportunities and the transformative power of GIS reshaped my understanding of its significance. Previously, I had only seen GIS as a tool for my project, ZotnFound. Rosemary, on the other hand, painted a broader picture, emphasizing its global applications and potential to drive community change.
Inspired by this newfound understanding, I've realized that GIS fits in perfectly with my professional goals. Rather than just a technical skill, I now see GIS as a discipline in which I want to immerse myself. The opportunities at Esri, as shared by Rosemary, highlight the field's vast potential. However, more than internships or specific roles, I'm motivated by a genuine desire to pioneer GIS solutions that can have a tangible impact on communities.
With this perspective, I am eager to expand my knowledge of GIS and explore its diverse applications. I'm driven by a desire to make a genuine contribution to a field with the potential to reshape communities and industries. As I travel down this road, I'm excited to collaborate, innovate, and contribute to the future of GIS.
Image of Globie, Esri's mascot, from twitter.com/Esri
Conclusion: Looking Ahead
From childhood, my heart has always been set on creating positive change for others. My experiences at UC Irvine only deepened this commitment. The potential of GIS has truly captivated me, revealing a pathway to bring about significant community transformation on a global scale.
As I delve deeper into the world of GIS, I'm not just looking at its technical prowess but its ability to reshape communities, address challenges, and provide solutions. Imagining a world where technology not only solves problems, but also revives the flames of hope and reimagines a brighter future for all.