## Inspiration

We pass by so many people everyday, yet never get to know any of them. Wouldn't it be nice to, though? Maybe you click with some of these people. ko4n facilitates this on the basis of shared interests, which you express by sharing the media and art that you like, pinned to location.

## What it does

ko4n introduces a novel concept of 'content pots' associated with real-world locations. Users must be physically present at a location to contribute to its pot. This feature fosters a unique blend of digital and physical interaction, encouraging users to share and discover media and art tied to specific places, thus connecting with others who share their interests.

## How we built it

Our journey in building ko4n involved leveraging Expo and React Native for the front-end, paired with a serverless architecture powered by Cloudflare on the back-end. This combination allowed us to create a responsive, efficient, and scalable application.

## Challenges we ran into

Embarking on this project, our team faced a steep learning curve with React and React Native. Despite our initial unfamiliarity, we embraced the challenge, turning it into a valuable learning experience.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're thrilled to announce that ko4n is not just a concept but a functioning reality. Despite the initial jankiness in the UI, the core functionality of connecting people through location-based content sharing is up and running, exceeding our initial expectations.

## What we learned

Our journey with ko4n has been an enlightening experience in understanding the intricacies of React and its potential in building modern, user-centric applications. This project has been a testament to our team's ability to learn and adapt swiftly.

## What's next for ko4n

The future of ko4n is an exciting canvas of possibilities. Our immediate focus is on enhancing the user interface to make it more intuitive and engaging. As we move forward, we aim to expand the platform's capabilities, exploring new ways to enrich user interaction and connection through shared interests in real-world locations.
## Inspiration

In our current day to day life, social media has taken priority in a majority of our attention spans. We recognize an addiction that exists within society and how it limits users to their phones instead of engaging with their surroundings. We were inspired to create an environment in which allowed users to be sociable with their outside surroundings without enclosing them in the digital world.

## What it does

Our app takes the essential features from major social media platforms (Facebook messaging and Instagram image gallery) to create a online space that reflects the relationship between people. We want to allow a space where memories are cherished and where people can connect after an initial get together. The app utilizes facial recognition technology as a gateway to access and interact within this platform. Only when a user is physically hanging out with another person(s), can they use the app to add one another.

## How I built it

We split the roles evenly between 3 team members. We had a back-end developer work with Django and incorporate Face API, MySQL database from Microsoft Azure while our full-stack/front-end developer worked to develop our app in React Native. Our UX designer worked on the visuals and user flow simultaneously.

## Challenges I ran into

On top of pivoting ideas MANY times, we had quite a few system challenges. The biggest challenges we ran into were connecting the database to our environment using Microsoft Azure. We also came across issues regarding OS permissions with our Android phone when trying to access the camera functionality.

## Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We are proud of being able to implement Microsoft Azure and Face API as well as being able to resolve our issues and building a cross platform app in react-native with little or no experience.

## What I learned

We learned about cloud deployment and database migration.

## What's next for Linkr

Changing header colours to match our emotions as we communicate online with our friends (to build awareness in our and our peers' emotional states).
## Inspiration

We wanted to watch videos together as a social activity during the pandemic but were unable as many platforms were hard to use or unstable. Therefore our team decided to create a platform that met our needs in terms of usability and functionality.

## What it does

Bubbles allow people to create viewing rooms and invite their rooms to watch synchronized videos. Viewers no longer have to conduct countdowns on their play buttons or have a separate chat while watching!

## How I built it

Our web app uses React for the frontend and interfaces with our Node.js REST API in the backend. The core of our app uses the Solace PubSub+ and the MQTT protocol to coordinate events such as video play/pause, a new member joining your bubble, and instant text messaging. Users broadcast events with the topic being their bubble room code, so only other people in the same room receive these events.

## Challenges I ran into

* Collaborating in a remote environment: we were in a discord call for the whole weekend, using Miro for whiteboarding, etc.
* Our teammates came from various technical backgrounds, and we all had a chance to learn a lot about the technologies we used and how to build a web app
* The project was so much fun we forgot to sleep and hacking was more difficult the next day

## Accomplishments that I'm proud of

The majority of our team was inexperienced in the technologies used. Our team is very proud that our product was challenging and was completed by the end of the hackathon.

## What I learned

We learned how to build a web app ground up, beginning with the design in Figma to the final deployment to GitHub and Heroku. We learned about React component lifecycle, asynchronous operation, React routers with a NodeJS backend, and how to interface all of this with a Solace PubSub+ Event Broker. But also, we learned how to collaborate and be productive together while still having a blast

## What's next for Bubbles

We will develop additional features regarding Bubbles. This includes seek syncing, user join messages and custom privilege for individuals.