The MDG SOC’19 Experience: One helluva amazin’ rollercoaster ride 😎

My idea for SOC’19 developed while talking to my grandparents.

Our conversation was about how my nani(grandmom) keeps track of their daily medicines. And how, being old also meant that it was getting increasingly hard for them to remember bills,groceries,etc. That’s when I thought of pitching the idea ‘WeCare- A Utility App for the Elderly’ for SOC’19.

What’s WeCare?

Everybody needs additional care and attention as they age..

And so, not so surprisingly, tech-savvy elderly people are gradually becoming an increasingly large category of app users. WeCare aims to make their lives easier by planning their daily activities, reminding them about daily medications, bills, groceries and much more.

Users will be able to keep track of medical history, and other social events.

This way, it endeavors to help them lead independent and fulfilling lives.

The app currently has 2 parts -

Medical Aid: which reminds user to take daily medicines on time, and helps keep track of their medical history.

Planning Aid: has a Utility Reminder feature, which is basically a task reminder. And a Events Scheduler, which has the user input their social calendar.

I had also initially planned to include a Helping Hand feature. This feature is especially helpful in metropolitan cities, for senior citizens who live independently. It involves signing up friendly neighbors who volunteer to help out the user in carrying out some reminder-based task.For eg; Driving them for doctor appointments, or grocery shopping etc.

However due to time constraints, this feature wasn’t implemented.

The Journey

My journey with MDG ( the Season of Code) began in October, continued throughout December, ended with the beginning of 2nd semester…

And boy was it a roller-coaster ride!😁

I started out extremely jubilant yet nervous(owing to my extreme noob-ness 😅with the tech world) , but the Planning Phase work got me hooked and booked for the ride nonetheless.

Then came the Coding Phase, and that’s when the ride took some exciting 🤩deep dives and steep turns. I’d sit and code long hours, happily learning new stuff- and making fast friends with Google-dada. Learnt the significance of reaching out to my SoC mentors ( Divyanshu Setia , Nitish Aggarwal ) and other best friends when stuck-

and most importantly, of never giving up 🤗.

At one point I got bombarded with debugging problems, and remember wondering if this is It. But the next day I sat down and started working them out one-by-one… seeing how my efforts(over the week) resolved each issue -I got a feeling, and that feeling, it’s the best in the world.

Finally the Release Phase arrived, and with that, I polished, and released the app with the help of my mentor.

So, what did I gain from this 3 month long journey?

To be brave, stay strong and not get fazed easily by obstacles.

These were my first baby steps into the world of developers and programming geeks.. and it can be scary as hell in the beginning 😉, for anyone.

But the thrill of the ride soon banished the niggling fears, and I eagerly anticipated each twist and turn..💛

Now, as the SOC journey ends, and am in the MDG fam🧡, I look forward to the next round of this thrilling ride…