The action that I came up with was to create a tool that helps people identify and deal with invasive plants. With support from experts, I hope to code an AI that is able to identify local invasive plant species from photos and provide accurate/simple steps to removing it, based on the information that I researched and put together. So far, I’ve filled in more for my list of ten common invasive species:
English holly, Scotch Boom, Himalayan Black Berry, and Common Tansy. (1)
I’ve successfully had a meeting with Dave Sands last Friday, who is the principal of technology implementation. During our conversation, he provided me with many steps that I can take from now on. He has also taught me the five stages in Design thinking Process: Emphasize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test, and Notice & Reflect. I learned that throughout the making of an app, I will have to keep going through this process to refine it to perfection. At the end of the conversation, he provided me with his personal gmail, so I could contact him further after the month of June.
Last week, I did not face much challenge; however, some challenges I feel I will face moving forward is time management. I am currently volunteering in 2-3 different places every week and managing the Junior Soccer Team. To make sure I will be able to complete everything that I have planned below, I am going to dedicate at least 30 minutes everyday, working towards coding the prototype and reaching out to potential users. Below are some organizations I can reach out to:
1) naturalareas@coquitlam.ca
2)info@bcinvasives.ca
– Putting up posters with QRs for people to take my questionnaire.
Next, I am planning to reach out to some target users to describe the app I’m planning to create and to ask what features they would like (the Emphasize stage). I will code my very own prototype using Copilot (recommended by Mr. Sands!). My target users are local community garden volunteers, casual park walkers and volunteer clean up groups for different local cities. I also need to conduct more research on current environmental apps that my app can base off and identify any missing features they might have. By doing this I can put aside my own assumptions, while gaining insight into the users and their needs.
Reference:
https://www.portcoquitlam.ca/services/environment-nature/invasive-species/invasive-plants – 1
