During the pandemic, there was an abrupt switch to online learning which hindered learning capabilities. Many people are not able to focus on and understand particular subjects as they did on campus. This problem is causing people to not learn as effectively because students don’t have a teacher to consult. If students can’t get their questions answered, they can’t learn a particular subject well. GRASP helps solve this critical problem with online learning by allowing students to chat with mentors to help them and give step-by-step solutions to problems using AI which makes students more engaged in learning. This app can be used for not only students for learning online, but also for students who are attending classes in-person.
GRASP is a mobile app that makes learning easy and simple. The user can chat in real-time with other people to solve their questions and also solve problems using AI. Students can manually type the problem, take a picture of their problem in which Computer Vision will analyze the problem, showing a solution, you can voice type your problem, and draw out the problem, too.
The user starts at the authentication where they can register or sign in if they have an account powered by firebase user authentication.
Problem Solving Screen: Manual Input Screen: Users can manually input their science question which then is fed into Wolfram API query and the result will appear on the screen. (Not shown due to time constraints, please check out UI image though) Users are also able to choose the image and then use Google Cloud to convert that image into text then being fed into a query for Wolfram Alpha to receive a result. The main other two sections are the archive section and the discussions section. In the archive system, after achieving a result for a question, users can select a folder and save their question answer and name it. This system is utilized by Google’s Firestore real-time database and data modeling to organize. They are also able to press the add button to add more folders. For the discussion page, users can press onto a discussion they find interested in or wish to help someone else with. They can join a chat room and send a message to the other user to help add to the discussion. The user is also able to create discussions by pressing the add button. This was also created using Firestore.
How we built it:
- React Native for the frontend
- Expo workflow for over-wifi deployment
- Firebase for user authentication and real-time data storage/retrieval
- Google Cloud Vision to power the Computer Vision problem detection
- Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API for the Speech Recognition
- Wolfram API to solve the problems
- Figma for UI/UX design
Challenges we ran into
We ran into many challenges and technical bugs, but that is what programming is all about. The first challenge we ran into was hooking up Google Cloud services to the mobile app, as we aren’t too familiar with it. Another challenge we ran into was figuring out a way to bring a real-time chat feature.
Accomplishments we are proud of
We are proud of so many things. We made use of this project to the best of our abilities in the allotted time. We got to use the Google Cloud Platform, which is something that isn’t too familiar to both of us. After seeing how easy it is to use, we plan on using it more often. Additionally, we combined all of our skills to create a mobile app that has multiple features and we are proud of this app. We love the UI/UX and we love the backend. Finally, we are proud of the amount of work we pulled off in the given time. We would have never thought we could accomplish this much in such a small amount of time.
What we learned
- Real-time storage/retrieval of messages
- Using camera vision to analyze problems
- Using Wolfram’s API to solve the problems
What’s next for GRASP
- Making the program applicable to other subjects except for science
During the pandemic, there was an abrupt switch to online learning which hindered learning capabilities. Many people are not able to learn particular subjects as they did on campus. This problem is causing people to not learn as effectively because students don’t have a teacher to consult. GRASP helps solve this critical problem with online learning by allowing students to chat with mentors to help them and give step-by-step solutions to problems using AI which makes students more engaged in learning.
When the user visits the app, they can choose whether they would like to login or register. After they login/register, they get to the home page where they can select from two options which are: solving a problem or going to the messaging platform where students can chat in real-time with other people to solve their problems.
SOLVING A PROBLEM
If you select “Solve a Problem”, you have 4 options to choose from: typing the problem, voice typing the problem, taking a picture of the problem, or drawing out the problem. If we tap “Input text”, we can type out the problem, and Wolfram will solve the problem and display the result. We can also take a picture of that same problem and Wolfram will display a result.
Users can go to the discussions tab at the bottom, and chat with other people in real-time. Users can select specific discussions and help solve other people’s problems.