Hackathon Project
ToolBox
-
Sherwin Thirumavalan
-
Sahishnu Sagiraju
-
Adit Pathania
Acknowledgements
I am immensely grateful to Sherwin Thirumavalan, Sahishnu Sagiraju, and Adit Pathania for their invaluable contributions to our project. Working alongside such talented individuals made our journey to UT Austin not just memorable but also a cornerstone of my personal and professional growth.
Traveling to UT Austin was an experience I'll never forget, and it was made possible by the collective effort and dedication of our team. Your expertise and teamwork were crucial in bringing our ideas to life.
A heartfelt thank you to HackTX for providing such an amazing platform for innovation and collaboration. This experience has enriched us all and showcased the potential of collective endeavor in technology.
For more details about our project and experiences, please check out our DevPost!
Inspiration
After a long day of work, family issues, financial struggles, and many other challenges, everyone wants to discuss things and vent their frustrations with someone who can relate, or at the very least, someone who can listen. Construction workers face unique stressors and situations that can impact their mental health. Toolbox was formed to create a supportive platform where construction workers can share common experiences, vent their frustrations, and find a listening ear, whether through a fellow worker or a supportive AI.
What it does
Toolbox is a safe space for construction workers looking to express their concerns, share their day-to-day experiences, or vent without strings attached. The platform provides anonymous real-time chatting with other workers or an AI chatbot. The AI is trained in mental health support, ensuring a safe, judgment-free zone. If a mutual connection is made between two peers, they will be served with an option to connect further through other third-party apps. Toolbox is driven towards promoting a safe and supportive community within the construction industry.
How we built it
Utilizing React for the frontend and Firebase for real-time database, we crafted an intuitive and user-friendly interface to ensure anonymous authentication. The platform’s chatbot was trained using a dataset tailored for construction workers’ mental health on DialogFlow, ensuring relevant, considerate responses. Furthermore, we were able to host our web application using FireHost, making it available at toolboxpro.tech.
Challenges we ran into
Utilizing Firebase was deemed a challenge since designing the input-output fields of the chatbot in real time is hard to configure. Another challenge we ran into was training DialogFlow to be considerate regarding mental health terminology. We weren’t able to import our dataset directly too, and so we spent a lot of time manually importing the dataset, piece by piece.
Accomplishments that we’re proud of
An accomplishment we are proud of is integrating everything into one web app using Google Cloud as our backend and React.JS as our front end. This is our first time utilizing Google Cloud for any project and are so proud to have learned and utilized it this hackathon. We also grew in communication amongst our team, allowing every member to interact with an aspect of creating Toolbox. Furthermore, we are proud to have come up with a solution to ProCore’s problem statement, allowing a safe space for construction workers, and creating an impact in the world.
What we learned
We dove deeper into real-time database management, creating NLP using Google Cloud resources, working with APIs, and finally working together on GitHub.
What’s next for toolboxpro.tech
We aim to expand Toolbox to have a more tailored AI experience over time, along with features like group forums and tailoring towards unique stressors that may occur, amongst the construction community. We can also do options for audio/video calls. Finally, an option to connect further anonymously through the toolbox rather than through third-party services.