Similar to long-duration space flights people are now isolated in their homes with little to no social interaction. It is safe to assume that some people are socially isolated in ideal living situations, but others are not. People in difficult living situations need a positive outlet in which they can divert to in times of need. The Panacea team has created an application for that. The Panacea application allows it's users to chat with others who are feeling the same way. Alongside with that it allows its users to search through a list of positive news articles from around the world and read them.
While some people are socially isolated in beautiful homes and loving families, others are in different and much worse living situations. As a result what used to be a somewhat acceptable situation due to social isolation has turned into a nightmare. This inspired the team to create an application where users can, even during isolation, interact with people.
The purpose of the Panacea application is to become a positive outlet to those who need it. As such, the platform provides the following features:
The main flow of the application is as follows: Users are prompt to create a profile, once a profile is created the user can go to the categories page and select a feeling. Upon selection the user is directed to a chat where they can start a conversation. If the user wishes to start multiple conversations, the chat page will direct the user to a list of their open chats. Finally, the user can view positive articles under the news page.
The main pages of the application are as follows:
Profile: The profile page displays the user's information.
Categories: The category page displays a list of the feeling categories that the user will select from. Once the user selects a feeling they will be directed to a chat with a person who has selected the same category.
Trend Analysis: Information from the selections will be used in a trend analysis that will be based on feelings and user geo-location data using the Nasa Products for Covid-19 "SEDAC Covid -19 Viewer: Population estimates by age group and sex".
Chats: The chats page lists the previous chat that the user has opened. This allows the user to revisit older chats and start new conversations with the same people.
News: The news page displays a list of positive articles retrieved from around the world. The list tells the user the positive level, in percentage, of the context inside the article. Once the user chooses an article they will be directed to a page where they can view it.
The team used the Flutter SDK on android studio to create an application for both IOS and Android devices. The dart language is used to program in order to create a Flutter application. A news API was created using the PHP scripting language and is then used within the application to retrieve articles from around the world to display for the user.The team was able to successfully create the application which is provided in a github link below.