AQ-Station
AQ-Station is a web application for mobile and desktop web browsers that was developed by Kha Bui, Nhan Bui, Maegan Chow, Kiran Datwani, Chad Oshiro as well as myself for the HACC 2021 hack-a-thon. Our goal was to address one of the available challenges that involved improving the communication between pet owners and the Animal Quarantine offices within the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. As such, the application we designed is one that allows pet owners to log-in to the site using their email and pet code associated with their pet. Once signed-in, they will be communicated on whether or not their pet has arrived and is checked into the system by the admin. Afterwards, if the pet is ready to be picked up, the pet owner can place themselves into a straightforward queue that will communicate when they can come into the office such that people will not have to wait in front under the hot sun. While waiting, the pet owners will be notified of any announcements and estimated time of when their pet can be picked up.
My contributions included designing some of the pages and its functionalities such as a confirmation screen indicating that a pet-owner’s pet is ready as well as the admin view of incoming pet-owners ready that were ready to pick-up their pet. The primary feature I was most involved in developing however was the queue system that the entire application would mostly be centered on. My team and I initially had challenges in developing this system, yet after a countless experimentation and design iterations, I was able to eventually create a functional version of the queue. The end result of the queue system involved first presenting to the pet-owner that their pet was ready for pick-up; they could then confirm that they are ready to initiate the pick-up. The pet-owners will then be placed into a queue where once they are number 2 in line, they could head inside to the office. Once the pet-owner has checked out, the offices (who are signed as admin), can then sign them out of the queue so that the next pet-owner can come in.
Ultimately, through this hack-a-thon, my team and I learned how to work under a limited time-frame and how to be resourceful in coding our proposed idea since we had little no guidance from seniors or professors who were traditionally available in our undergraduate courses. This project also brought forth the opportunity of being able to get to know my team a little more as well as meet speakers who were involved in various organizations. Thus, while we did not win a spot in the top 3 for the competition, what we did win was valuable experience.
Explore our GitHub Repo: