2021 Meteor Hackathon: How Team Suaveware Scored 2nd Place
Check out how Team Suaveware developed Arvri, an educational content hub powered by communities, to earn second place in our 2021 Meteor Hackathon.
When we set the rules for our 2021 Meteor Hackathon, we thought it would be a challenge to create an impactful, deployable app in six days with just five team members.
Team Suaveware accepted that challenge, then upped the ante.
They didn’t have a handful of smarties to design and develop their app Arvri, an educational content repository powered by communities. Team Suaveware accomplished their goal with just two team members.
Their impressive work on Arvri earned them second place in this year’s hackathon.
So today we’re spotlighting how Team Suaveware embodied our theme and exceeded expectations. Keep reading to hear how they hope to make an impact in the realm of education using Meteor.
CREATING IMPACT: The 2021 Meteor Hackathon Theme
This year, we asked teams of no more than five to develop an impactful application using Meteor Framework in any field of interest that sparked their curiosity.
We wanted helpful and meaningful ideas (for a cause, a non-profit, etc.). But we also hoped for realistic projects that could be usable and deployable on Galaxy by the end of the hackathon.
Teams had the choice of building a product with a clear revenue stream, a non-profit, open-source, or anything in between. But all development had to occur during the six-day hackathon window.
After careful consideration, these teams emerged as our 2021 Meteor Hackathon winners:
- 1st Place: Team HACCamino (View Repo)
- 2nd Place: Team Suaveware (View Repo)
- 3rd Place: Team COKOA (View Repo)
We highlighted Team HACCamino in a previous post and discussed their outstanding app, ECOCamino. It helps people learn what they can do environmentally in their area, from participating in cleanups to reporting trash. Check out Team HACCamino’s spotlight next!
While Team HACCamino focused on creating environmental impacts, our silver medal champions concentrated on education.
Say Hello To Team Suaveware, Our 2021 Silver Medalists!
Like we mentioned earlier, Team Suaveware only consists of two members: Luiz de Oliveira and Giulia Freire.
In just six days, this dynamic duo designed and developed Arvri, a community-powered educational content hub.
Users can add videos, articles, exercises, diagrams, and anything else to improve the overall learning process within their community. The community then votes on the best content, and those winners are shown first in the list.
Though only in its very early stages, Team Suaveware intends their app to be free and open-source.
Arvri: The Smarter Brain Feeder
In his cheeky yet informative video, Luiz Carlos explains Arvri using an example with a computer science student and their professor.
The student tells the professor that he’s curious about a topic briefly mentioned during the lecture and wants to learn more about it. Instead of leaving the student to Google the subject on his own, the professor pulls up their Computer Science content on Arvri.
Organized by semester and subject, each bucket contains content and resources for students to get started or deepen their knowledge on specific topics. For instance, if they click the Discrete Mathematics umbrella, they’ll find a general overview and additional subtopic hubs.
5 Ways Arvri Benefits Educators and Students
Arvri has so much potential because it provides educators and students with:
1. On-demand learning. Crammed curriculums with tight semester deadlines mean educators cannot always cover topics as in-depth as they’d like. This is especially true for intro classes.
Professors can add content to Arvri for students to dive into later on their own time. And organized topics keep them from falling down a rabbit hole of subtopics.
2. Top-tier educational content. Did you know that prestigious schools and Ivy League universities share free courses and class lectures online?
These A+ professors may do a better job of explaining certain subjects, thanks to their years of experience. Directing students to these gurus gives them an “approved” list of high-quality content to check out rather than spending countless hours searching for something that may prove valuable.
3. Different approaches to learning. One of the biggest frustrations educators and students share is that no two people learn the same way. Some students soak up intel visually, while others better understand concepts discussed audibly, for example.
Arvri makes it easier for educators to share a variety of content and resources that allow students to connect with material in their own ways.
4. Curriculum inspiration. According to Luiz and Giulia, the Arvri repository will replicate existing curriculums and allow for communities to create new ones. Different curriculums could be built using the same classes and topics as others.
So if a high school educator finds an interesting lecture on MIT’s YouTube channel, they can add it to their own curriculum.
5. The ability to contribute and share resources. Anyone can easily add more content to the repository. Once students create an account, they can post videos, infographics, articles, etc., that they think their classmates might enjoy.
This encourages participation and helps make better content more available. It also improves the learning and teaching experience of students and educators alike.
Pretty awesome, right? Now you see why Team Suaveware snagged second place in our hackathon.
Arvri’s Tech Stack and Team Suaveware’s Journey With Meteor
Luiz, Team Suaveware’s lead developer, had two years of working with Meteor under his belt before the hackathon. He gained most of this experience while working for Quave and Pathable, which uses Meteor to power virtual and hybrid events.
For Arvri, Team Suaveware relies on Meteor with Mongo for the back-end and Svelte for the front-end with Tailwind (using the DaisyUI components). They also plan to host using Meteor Cloud services.
“Participating in the hackathon was really fun. We had a great time; the productivity that Meteor unlocks for small teams is unparalleled.”
Unlike many hackathon submissions programmed in JavaScript, Team Suaveware built nearly 93% of Arvri with Svelte.
Luiz and Giulia said, “We recommend developers that work with Svelte (or are curious about it) to try it with Meteor. It was our first time trying it, and we think they go well together.”
The team continued that it’s possible to intermediate the state from the back-end to the front-end via Svelte stores. That makes dealing with the data easy, so they could have more time to focus on making the app look good.
So What’s Next for Team Suaveware and Arvri?
Arvri is not currently ready for use, which is totally understandable since the app, code architecture, and all of its features were made in less than one week by just two people.
However, Team Suaveware is excited and eager to put Arvri into the real world.
They want to introduce the app in classes next semester, which may provide them with the best opportunities to properly test, improve, and validate. The team hopes to consult professionals in the educational field for feedback and ask students how they can make Arvri better for them.
“We have to properly measure Arvri’s impact and make sure it will be worth it for the users. We’re confident that it’s going to make a positive impact, but having the right numbers in the right chart is better than confidence.”
Luiz and Giulia said if any teachers are interested or have any input to add to the project, they would love to be contacted via email (at luizcarlos1405@gmail.com).
Ready To See How Meteor Can Help Your Team?
Meteor is an open-source framework for seamlessly building and deploying web, mobile, and desktop applications in JavaScript. And as we’ve seen in this spotlight, Meteor also works well with Svelte!
The Team Suaveware duo accomplished so much in just six days for our 2021 Hackathon. So what can Meteor help your team achieve?
If you’re ready to find out, join the community of more than 500k developers from all over the world that trust and rely on Meteor today!
