In 2024, I participated in Missouri S&T’s annual Pickhacks competition. There, students were tasked with creating security themed software or hardware projects. In preparation of the weekend-long competition, my team and I created a shared Word document in which we compiled ideas for potential software projects.
When I first heard the theme ‘security’ my initial thought was Cyber Security, but it felt too straightforward. Instead, I wanted to approach the topic from a more creative angle. One idea was an environmental security game that would educate users on climate change issues and ways they could help. In addition, I also envisioned a campus security app that would include features such as security and weather alerts, important contact information, and a platform for reporting lost and found items. Ultimately, my team decided to go with this idea.
My primary role on the team was centered on enhancing the user experience. During the ideation phase, I used whiteboards to visualize the various web pages of our project. We planned to include a home screen, a lost and found section, a weather alert page, and a mental health resources page. In addition to organizing the website’s layout and content, I contributed with design elements as well. Using Adobe Illustrator, I created several graphics while sticking to a central color scheme centered around the school’s brand colors—green and gold.
For the front end of our project, we used React, while the backend was built using Springboot and Java. Prior to the competition, I had no experience with these frameworks, so I found it very insightful to learn the basics. We also used Github and various Git commands to implement changes.
Over the course of the weekend, our team gained valuable insights on overcoming technological challenges. One major problem was figuring out how to navigate between web pages using a top navigation bar. Despite our efforts, none of the solutions seemed to work. Eventually, I suggested consolidating everything into a single page. This approach allowed us to move forward with the project, ensuring we could still include all the content we wanted, just in a different format than originally planned. Although it might sound cheesy, another challenge we faced was learning how to work efficiently as a team. Everyone brought unique perspectives and skills to the team, the only task was meshing them together! The other members were primarily focused on the data and math aspects of the project, while I made significant contributions to the design and user experience. Afterall, a website is only as good as its usability!
Here are some graphics I created for the project!