Geography with Environment Awareness Application

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Greetings !

Name : Rajan Vaish

Project Title : Geography with Environment Awareness Application.

Synopsis :

When awareness comes into picture, awareness about our Earth physically and politically is also very important, it lets one know where he/she resides on Earth what all is near and far from his/her location .Studying Geography is all about it. But our earth is being hurt by Pollution, and children being future generation need to be aware of the fact early and must know causes and effects of pollution, who is causing and where is it effecting most. The application will teach it all.

Benefits to One Laptop Per Child  :

Since the project is children oriented and children being our future generation so they need to be smart and remain aware of the World around them Both physically and environmentally .Also in todays scenario a lot of children are getting dependent on tuitions and teachers and forgetting the best way of study – self study.The application will make them habitual for the same .So,it will benefit in development of child’s personality too ,as an aware child is a smart child .

Deliverables :

A complete Geography with Environment Awareness Application with proper documentation attached with snap shots will be provided .

Project Details:

The application will be coded in Python as it’s the Organization’s requirement and a very power full language. The Application will be divided into two parts basically Geography and Environment which will be connected latter. A Smart World Map will be the platform for learning very similar to the one line in Microsoft Encarta for Windows. The GUI may be used using QT 4.3.4 GCC 4.2.1 . where in the *.ui file the event handling will be implemented .

Geography module will help children learn about various Physical and Political features of Earth .There will be a Tutorial section and for each tutorial there will be an interactive exercise followed by a game .Studying from tutorial will help students or children learn to study on their own , improving self dependency .There will be small chapters like Rivers of World, Mountains of World ,Plateaus of World ,Vegetation of World ,Oceans and Seas of World and similar . After they are done with the chapter, they have to tick on the index .Only after its ticked child will be allowed to go through its interactive World Map round, where from a database of hundred’s of questions randomly questions will be generated and student has to mark that place on the World Map, by DRAG – DROP and CLICK THE LOCATION features .Easy/Medium/Tough levels will be for choice .On that basis the score will rise high . But before starting Physical World’s exercises .It will be advised to go through the Political Map or Tutorials first .A Master Map for both physical and political features can be viewed anytime while tutorials, however while exercises it will be blocked. Chapters on States of Countries, Countries, Continents, Cities will be set for children. In total about 100 tutorials will be there for Geography itself, for interested students the maps will get more detailed. If needed FLASH will be implemented so that students/children can have a better understanding of maps .

The game related to improve knowledge of cities and countries etc will be a game between child and computer, where names of cities, countries, physical features like rivers, oceans are used. as the child enters a name the word with which name has ended, computer responds with a name starting with that without repeating the words already being used in that session. This will help in increasing the knowledge of names of cities and countries etc.

Environment Module will help children know about various sources of pollution and ways to protect our Environment .Instead of tutorials though Articles will be placed for students to understand Sources of Pollution, Types of Pollution, Ranking of Countries in terms of pollution, Ranking of polluted rivers etc, students while having a session with exercises will be ranking them again or similar questions maybe put upon .Topics like which industry pollutes more and Global Warming like issues will be dealt too .Wildlife wont remain untouched either .

Global Warming monitor can be used, where on increasing years one can see the state of coastal areas in future. And on increasing/decreasing the rate of gases causing pollution will re-show the state. Using a slide bar such a feature can be dynamically noticed .

It is a heavy database application with SQL queries running it.

Project Schedule:

The Project is planned to be split into 4 stages.

1 – ANALYSIS (26 May – 10June): Using Software Engineering techniques, I will be creating the work flow of the project and design the Database for the same.

2 –RESEARCHING AND COLLECTING DATA/INFORMATION (11June – 20 June): Since this is an informational application so data for the same and some research in that respect must be conducted.

3 –GEOGRAPHY MODULE (21 June – 21 July): Functionality for implementing Geography Module will be done during this phase starting with building up the database probably MySQL .The names game will be part of it .

4- ENVIRONMENT MODULE (22 July – 10August): Functionality for implementing Environment Module will be done during this phase. The Global Monitor will be part of it .

5- TESTING AND DOCUMENTATION ( 11 August – 18 August ) : Final and Robust testing with proper documentation pasted with snapshots to be prepared

Changes after being Commented :

I plan to use PyGTK (Python and GTK ) now instead of Qt and use GIS for maps handling. Logic for the implementation will be same,that is grabbing the latitude/longitude and the position with respect to monitor(so that mouse can be used to drag and drop,the capital to respective country)and matching it with the value stored for the capitals name(it can be label too).

Bio:

I am a 6th semester Computer Science Major from India. Currently pursuing my B.S equivalent B-Tech from Jaypee University of Information Technology, Solan, H.P, India. I have been programming in several languages for more than 3 years like C,C++,JAVA with Basic J2EE,ASP.NET using C# and PHP .I have been always very passionate about Computers and Ready to Learn attitude .I believe in self study which makes me very self-dependent and Challenges Loving . Amongst Human speaking languages, I have full command on English and Hindi. I am a novice developer in Python but with my knowledge in many Object Oriented Languages, I am confident to learn Python in 1 week before 26th May .I have a sound command working on Database projects and handling SQL queries . I have experience in working on Real World Open source Applications like the one I made for IBM’s Great Mind Challenge 2007 using Basic J2EE .AJAX is my current area of Interest and I have been developing applications using PHP and AJAX .The source code of which will be helping me in this project as well .Hence I firmly believe that I will be able to successfully complete the project well in time. I have already made few 3-TIER architecture applications successfully. I am decently strong in technical skills, on that basis I have been recruited by ASIA’s largest software company (TATA Consultancy Services) and ACCENTURE and awarded the post of Consultant currently for an Online Internship at a US based firm (Music Management LLC).Within short span of time I became important team member of the team due to my IDEAs and Strategy making skills .I have this hobby of thinking new IDEAS for software improvement and innovation. Which is the best asset I have, I will keep adding Ideas to the project even after it’s over for the GSoC ’08 session and contribute to OLPC life long along with my work for any company. I will remain committed to OLPC. However, I won’t be able to visit Boston during summers due to money constraints. Geography has always been one of my favorite subjects and I won JOINT UNIVERSITY GEOGRAPHY QUIZ in 2006. I am very keen to contribute for OLPC and be a part of such an ambitious project for a great cause.

Please contact me, if any part of the proposal remains unclear, thanking you.

Thank you for considering this proposal, and for your time! My Resume : http://vaish.rajan.googlepages.com/myresume E-Mail : vaish.rajan@gmail.com