High-Level Project Summary
Our team developed a prototype of an application for mobile devices focused on Android operating systems from version 5.0 onwards.It is a repository of information about the stars and their movements with a dashboard-like interface.This application solves the problem of the challenge because being available for Android 5.0 supports low-end cell phones so it is ideal for distribution to all people since not everyone has a decent cell phone.It is important to use mobile technologies as it is what has more impact on the world, plus having the information at hand is a way to feed their curiosities.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
Our application has a main menu or dashboard with the different categories of information required, selecting one opens a window that displays information from NASA or other space agencies already processed so that people who do not know data or technical terms can easily understand why the stars have these "movements".
Everything is through interaction with users, it also has the benefit that it does not need internet to run, just download so the information displayed is stored in the app and it is intended to be free.
With this app we hope to get people to develop an interest in these astronomical topics and thus in the future we can have more people trying to discover the mysteries of the stars.
This project is developed with Android Studio, a programming IDE for mobile systems widely used today, we also use the Kotlin programming language, which is relatively new in the programming language market and is also based on Java and is used for the development of mobile applications, an example of the applications developed with this language is the Netflix application. We also used cell phones of different ranges to test the performance of the App.
The viability of the project is based on existing technologies that in juxtaposition allow through a utility model to improve learning with respect to stellar variability, however, there are different sources of information that are based on existing techniques and technologies that are being adapted to the needs of learning and used in conjunction with each other, since currently the way of teaching with respect to stellar variability is often rudimentary and can become obsolete, an easily accessible application is developed with information according to NASA.
Degree of innovation the application was developed with current technologies and true data being that it is already capable of being used by users being of an intuitive and dynamic interface when used according to NASA's technology readiness level, the development status of the project is in a stage of 6, corresponding to the validation in conditions close to the real ones.
Space Agency Data
We used data from NASA and the European Space Agency, about NASA we used the image repository that is available on the internet to extract images that give a visual section to the app.
From the European Space Agency we extracted data on stellar variability such as intrinsic factors, brightness curve, Hubble images and processed them manually to generate the most understandable information possible, we also extracted time lapses from Hubble, specifically from M100 to show how stars can change their brightness, we also used data from the Starchild page.
Hackathon Journey
We think our experience was quite stressful but fun for our first hackathon, our team is multidisciplinary so we met new people with different knowledge, it was quite satisfying to be able to be in tune despite not knowing each other. We were inspired by the stars as some of our team members are very curious and mysterious and when we were convinced we didn't regret it.
Our focus was very much based on vulnerable populations, so we decided on a free app, for those people who do not have the necessary to access this information.
We had setbacks, but with the help of our advisors we were able to give ourselves a different point of view and it really helped us, and we always maintained our communication.
Last but not least, we want to thank our advisors and teachers Jair Ramirez and Luis Carreon, who were always very attentive to our situation and supported us with concepts of development and structuring of the information to be presented.
References
NASA's Starchield page with information about the stars.
NASA image repository.
Hubble satellite images.
European Space Agency pages with information about the stars.
Canva
Android Studio development IDE
Kotlin programming language
Open source repository GitHub
Tags
#app #Android #Education