LahainaSim

Lahaina Sim is an interactive web application designed to foster creativity and community engagement in the aftermath of the devastating wildfires that swept through Lahaina. Users are invited to participate in the reconstruction efforts by uploading their own 3D models, enabling them to simulate and visualize potential rebuilding scenarios. Users can enhance their uploaded models by pairing them with personally uploaded inspiration images or custom generated inspiration images directly within the app, utilizing the DALLE-2 integration. This platform serves as a virtual canvas where individuals can share and exchange ideas, sparking collaborative discussions about the future architectural landscape of Lahaina. Whether it’s proposing innovative designs or discussing the intricacies of simulations, Lahaina Sim provides a space for collective brainstorming and envisioning a resilient and vibrant future for the city.

A Brief Overview

In addition to its simulation capabilities, Lahaina Sim offers a comprehensive insight into the demographic and visitor statistics of Maui County. Users can access valuable data that provides a deeper understanding of the community, helping to inform decision-making processes during the rebuilding phase. By integrating these statistical features, Lahaina Sim not only acts as a creative hub for architectural ideation but also as a repository of information that empowers users with a holistic view of the region. Through this dual functionality, Lahaina Sim emerges as a dynamic platform where innovation, community engagement, and data-driven decision-making converge to shape the restoration and revitalization of Lahaina.

Learns and Reponsibilities

The team experienced a once overwhelming amount of requirements, which we learned to break down into digestible bit and turn it into a functional and viable product. And while it wasn’t necessary, we were also able to gather user feedback from the residents of Lahaina and showcase the application’s abilities. By doing this, we learned that the application could be used in other locations beyond Lahaina, especially those experiencing natural disasters that require extensive rebuilding.

I was a full stack developer on this team, responsible for the statistics and discussions requirements. For the statistics page, I was able to pull US Census data to display an embedded site of statistics for the counties of Lahaina as well as visitor data with an interactive dashboard. The disucssions was a feature used extensively throughout the application, for this I made boilerplate components that was reusable and easily modifiable. With this registered users of the site can interact through forum posts and like/dislikes.

Results

In this hackathon my team placed 1st overall in the Custom Coded Solution Division, as well as earning the People’s Choice Award. For more information on this project, our GitHub is linked here. To watch a video demo and over of our application, that is linked here.

Credits

In collaboration with Michelle Leano, Timothy Huo, Ethan Chee, Jeraldine Joy Milla, and Marissa Halim