[MUSIC]
ERICA HANSON: Awesome.
So next up, we have the Emergency Response Assistance
project.
This is in Ghana.
And we also have Todd joining us to ask a couple more questions.
So let's play the demo.
[MUSIC]
Hi.
It's great to see you.
Project Emergency Response Assistance
calling in from Ghana, great.
How are you all doing?
PERDITHA ACHEAMPONG: We are fine
YAW ANANE: We are doing great.
ERICA HANSON: Good, great.
And we have Todd joining us as well.
How's it going, Todd?
TODD KERPELMAN: I'm still here.
It's going great.
YAW ANANE: Hello, Todd.
TODD KERPELMAN: Hi, everybody.
PERDITHA ACHEAMPONG: Hi.
TODD KERPELMAN: So I'm just going
to get started with the questions, if that's OK.
I want to ask the team, because I hear they
serve an interesting story.
What inspired you to create this app in the first place?
YAW ANANE: OK, Todd.
I'm Yaw from [INAUDIBLE] Ghana.
So the inspiration behind our project
is a very personal experience that we went through.
One of our mates, who is actually
part of this team that developed this particular solution,
was bitten by a snake on campus.
So we were about five on the team,
but almost everybody around didn't
have any knowledge about snake bite first aid,
or first aid for snake bites.
So we decided to call the emergency response teams,
the emergency response teams for assistance.
But what happened was, the lengths
and the medium of communication that we
were going to use with them were all busy
or wasn't going through.
So we were like, wow.
We had to carry our friend from campus to a nearby institution,
or a nearby hospital.
Right?
So after the ordeal, what we decided--
it was also a nearly fatal experience,
but God being so good, we are here.
After that, what we decided to do is,
we decided to come and investigate and see
whether we were the only ones who
went through that particular problem,
or that particular experience.
We were shocked to see that almost 90%,
or almost everybody that we questioned,
had gone through that particular experience before.
So we decided that, why don't we build a particular solution,
or a solution to counter this particular problem?
So that was basically our inspiration
behind this project.
And it was very strong to get off the ground.
Thank you.
TODD KERPELMAN: Wow, that is a story.
So your teammate who was bitten by a snake, is he OK?
Everything's good?
YAW ANANE: Yeah, it's actually Prince.
All right.
TODD KERPELMAN: And you're, like-- it's good?
You're feeling OK now?
AMPOMAH PRINCE: Yeah, I'm good.
I'm good now.
TODD KERPELMAN: Excellent.
So I want to ask, you said that few cases are even reported
to emergency response teams.
You mentioned that in your video.
So why is that?
Is it just because the system gets overwhelmed?
YAW ANANE: Yeah.
So what actually happens is, mostly
when people get in emergency cases
and report a report to the emergency response team,
or try getting in contact with the emergency response team,
they don't get answers.
Or, the emergency response team fails
to locate them based on the location description,
their victims, you know.
It has happened for a long time.
So what people do actually now is,
they don't try to even contact the emergency response
teams anymore.
They try to find your own means to solve their emergencies.
That is why there have been few cases that have been reported
to emergency assistance.
TODD KERPELMAN: Gotcha.
OK, and that's obviously something
you're looking to change with this app.
So have you shown a demo of your app
to any sort of organizations or emergency services
in your area?
And what's been the reaction?
ELVIS SARFO: OK.
So we're very fortunate to have a clinic in our university.
We communicated the basic idea to them,
and they were very interested.
They really helped us in the development of the system.
And when the system was presentable,
we presented it to the Red Cross Society on our campus,
and they were also very interested.
And they have given us the green light that if we are ready,
we can bring the system to them, and they
would introduce us to the national Red Cross Society,
too.
And also, we contacted two hospitals,
and they are also ready to receive
our proposal for the implementation
of this system in our country.
And we are very excited about that.
And we are also working harder and harder
to see this solution implemented.
Thank you.
TODD KERPELMAN: That's very exciting.
I did want to ask one technical question,
since I do have the sweater.
Can you tell me how Firebase is incorporated into your app?
What parts did Firebase hopefully
make easier, and maybe what parts were challenging still?
ELVIS SARFO: OK.
So after the design of the system,
we looked at the architecture, and it was like, wow,
this is very complex.
But it was very fortunate that we had heard about Firebase.
So we reached out to the-- actually,
that was the first time I used Firebase,
and it was very easy to learn.
It wasn't that complicated.
You just have to do so many things with just a little code,
and it was very interesting.
We used the Firebase Firestore for real-time data processing.
You see, emergencies have to be processed in real-time,
and Firebase Firestore was there for us.
For authentication, Firebase Authentication was there.
And we needed to send notifications
to the health authorities, too.
And that too--
Firebase Messaging, too was there.
So it was, like, we didn't have to worry about any back end
complexities and other things.
All was there for us in Firebase.
And we are really, really excited.
We really love Firebase.
And that has even encouraged us to use Firebase
in many projects now, and our institution is using it now
for our course registration, and it is going really well.
TODD KERPELMAN: Oh, that's great.
That's great to hear.
ERICA HANSON: Great.
Let's take a question from the live chat.
AUDIENCE: How does the application
detect fraud complaints?
YAW ANANE: OK.
So currently, the application is still in kind of a beta mode,
right?
But we use the Firebase authentications
to-- so it hasn't been actually deployed
to the wide public right now.
We are testing it with volunteers
that we have in a WhatsApp group,
and the health officials that we've contacted.
So basically, what's being done to detect fraud complaints is,
because we authenticate users using their emails, right?
We actually are hoping that users,
because the information in the app is special to them,
they wouldn't send fraudulent complaints
to the health authorities because they
know that their location and their personal information
is also being sent as part of the report.
So we are hoping that users will stay with--
But it's currently in a beta testing environment.
So as we go on, we have plans in adding a lot of systems,
or a lot of other stuff to make fraud detection very simple
for us.
AUDIENCE: OK.
TODD KERPELMAN: That sounds great.
Do you have time for one more question,
or do we have to move on?
ERICA HANSON: We do have to move on.
Unfortunately.
I wanted to hear more.
But it was a really cool hearing about your project.
Thanks for all your great work on that.
TODD KERPELMAN: Yeah, thanks so much for sharing with us.
It was really interesting.
AUDIENCE: And thank you, Todd, for being
with us for the last couple of projects.
TODD KERPELMAN: Oh sure, happy to be here.
ERICA HANSON: Sounds good.
And hopefully I'll see you in person with that sweater
on around Christmas time.
TODD KERPELMAN: That would be fantastic, I'll make a trip.
ERICA HANSON: Yeah, sounds good.
All right.
Thank you so much, team, and great to see you all.
Thanks for sharing your projects with us.
ELVIS SARFO: Yeah, you're welcome.
We love you all.
ERICA HANSON: Oh, we love you, too
TODD KERPELMAN: We love you too.
That's so nice.
[MUSIC]