LEAD Official| A One Health Approach
Awards & Nominations
LEAD Official has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
A One Health Approach
Pinpoint; A Navigation Application Addressing Exposure to Air Pollution and COVID-19
Summary
"Pinpoint" is a navigation application that aims to mitigate air pollution exposure and COVID-19 proliferation for people who are constantly driving and traveling, (e.g., couriers, commuters, workers, etc). This integrates data from the Global Positioning System, local agencies, and the NASA Earth Observation database to create tags for COVID rates and air pollution intensity on different locations; hence, provides alternative routes for the users to avoid these areas and locales. Furthermore, the app contains side features for contact tracing, primarily using GPS recording and Bluetooth. Lastly, this provides some COVID-19 updates from NLM and NASA Earth and Life Science Database.
How We Addressed This Challenge
Since the COVID-19 pandemic resulted to a spike in unemployment rates in Lipa City, Batangas, Philippines, many residents have resorted into food delivery services as their primary source of income; hence, they are prone to air pollution and COVID-19 as they are mostly exposed outdoors. This inspired team LEAD to develop Pinpoint, a navigation application which utilizes various technology and data sources to address COVID-19 and exposure to air pollution. Pinpoint's practical and significant contribution is solely based on its community-centered features which aim to reduce COVID-19 spread and exposure to air pollution, improve contact tracing means, and provide reliable data and information for public cognizance.
Specifically, the app has a navigation feature that integrates the Global Positioning System (GPS) which will be utilized to find the shortest possible distance relative to the displacement and to provide the most convenient alternative way in case the main route is subjected to pose great risk. Furthermore, the app will also utilize data from DOH and Google search trends to determine the severity of COVID-19 in a given locale relative to the population which will be represented by tags in the navigation screen; particularly, tags are classified by color based on severity - RED: Severe (78% above), ORANGE: Moderate (45%-78%), and YELLOW: Low (30%-45%). Likewise, the air pollution will be monitored through the imaging of NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE), particularly with Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) which can distinguish aerosol types such as smoke, dust, and sulfates, and measures cloud pressure and coverage, which subsequently provides data to atmospheric pollution level and state. This will be part of tagging with the opacity of color being its indicator: White (Low), Pink (Moderate), and Red (Highly polluted); this is to create an inference from wider spectrum.
Another feature of the app is the Personal Contact History Log which makes contact tracing much more empirical and accurate compared to the method in which the government would interview the patient. Each person that downloads the app will receive a specific and unique ID number which will be linked to their name and other personal information; this can only be accessed by the government authorities and cannot be accessed by other users. Specifically, this feature uses the Bluetooth technology of phones which, if turned on, allows the application to record the ID number of each person who is within 6 feet. The ID number and the corresponding time of encounter are stored in the Physical Contact History Logs. Moreover, the location of each encounter is also recorded using GPS automated recording.
On the side, the application also has "COVID-19 Updates", a feature which provides recent information from National Library for Medicine (NLM) and and Earth and Life Science Database regarding COVID-19.
The team hopes to achieve a lower probability of people contracting the virus through the navigation feature and a much more accurate method of contact tracing through the Personal Contact History Log. Thence, we want to be a catalyst towards achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) 3 which promotes Good Health and Well-being.
In the glare of necessity to aggrandize the state of living of the people and daily routines thereof, it is envisioned that this app would be the key to eliminate the dangers posed by the contemporary times. The team, by heart and association, believe that this would maneuver the spin of this world, to go the right way towards brighter and better days.
How We Developed This Project
As the team members originated from Lipa City, Philippines where COVID-19 has made a drastic impact towards transportation and even livelihood, Team LEAD is motivated by the passion and dedication to be of service to the underprivileged and exposed workforce, taking into account the protection and safety of the public. It is evident that passengers, drivers, and especially couriers or delivery personnel are experiencing major setbacks in transit due to the health crisis and varying levels of air pollution; thus, the team has formulated a mobile application while pursuing an inclusive approach, aiming to offer convenience, information, and reliability through pinpoint's unique features. They firstly identified prevailing issues in their locale, assessed the problems they aim to mitigate, integrated NASA's information databases to improve their planned application, and practiced team effort and camaraderie to further achieve a feasible output.
The basic coding languages used to develop the Pinpoint project are Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) and JavaScript. HTML provides the basic structure of sites, which is enhanced and modified by other technologies like CSS and JavaScript. This includes creating web elements like buttons, images, and text. When combined with the aforementioned web elements, CSS adjusts the way of how it would appear on the site. Moreover, it is used to control presentation, formatting, and layout. This language affects the entire mood and tone of the web page, making it an incredibly powerful tool. It is also what allows websites to adapt to different screen sizes and device types. Meanwhile, JavaScript is used to control the behavior of different elements. It is particularly useful for assigning new identities to existing website elements according to the decisions the user makes while visiting the page. This helps in building the landing page with certain preferences to generate leads from by capturing information about the application user. Lastly, the software used for coding the website was Brackets. The team is able to upload the built codes to GitHub for an easier access and editing from their own homes.
It is inevitable that the team has experienced certain problems whilst undergoing the process; some of these include their inexperience in such challenges and the extreme time constraint. However, discovering profound knowledge regarding NASA's databases, creating an appealing output out of the members' combined prowess, and prevailing and overcoming the aforementioned setbacks are the greatest achievements Team LEAD has garnered yet.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
With the team focusing on the Earth Observation challenge, they have mostly utilized data and open source from imaging satellites and instruments to establish foundation for the conceptualization of their project.
The team has focused on the use of Earth Observing System and its integration to Global Positioning System. Primarily, data from NASA's air quality analysis, and imaging from NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE); particularly with Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) which can distinguish between aerosol types, such as smoke, dust, and sulfates, and measures cloud pressure and coverage, and which provides data to atmospheric pollution level and state, were used to create a more accurate severity tagging of air pollution per area.
The team has also utilized the use of NASA's Earth and Life Science library for its "COVID updates" feature, wherein articles about COVID, air pollution and their impacts to public health may be accessed. Through this, it is expected that the usage of this platform as its primary source of information will be deemed beneficial towards all users of the pinpoint application.
Generally speaking, it is observed that the members of the group have efficiently utilized these data for the conceptualization of the application that they deem beneficial in lowering the risks of people's exposure to air pollution and COVID-19.
Project Demo
Attached herewith is the Slides of our demo, kindly present from the beginning to have a full view of our prepared demonstration.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1467KAHSpit49pHukBEgIFaYaVDk9eJNA-vLLxW5x7VY/edit?usp=sharing
Attached herewith is our 30-second YouTube application demo:
Data & Resources
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