Tackling a National Epidemic: Developing a Mobile Application for Mental Health
Advisor: Ms. Michal Sagal
Internship Location: Audax Labs, India
Onsite Mentor: Rakesh Sharma
As a senior at BASIS Independent Fremont, I’ve been part of an exceptional academic environment since its inception eight years ago, which has consistently ranked among the top schools in course rigor and academic excellence within the international BASIS network and beyond. However, this world-class education can come with immense stress and anxiety for students, which I have observed in myself and many friends. While recently, our school has been making great strides in allocating resources to mental health, more can be done. It is essential to the well-rounded education we offer to nurture not only the intellect of our students but also their emotional well-being. To assist in this effort, I propose the development of a mobile app, which will offer our students mental health resources and school-related information and support.
The project's primary research phase involves student surveys, app rollout to a control group, incorporating improvements, launching the app publicly, and workshopping the app with teachers and administrators. The final stages of this project aim to measure the app's impact on the student body's well-being and academic experience.
The project's significance lies in its multifaceted approach: fostering mental health support, destigmatizing discussions on well-being, and enhancing overall student performance within the academic setting. Ultimately, the project aims to create a replicable model for mental health initiatives, outlined in a comprehensive final report.
Project Blog
Week 0: A Mental Health Epidemic, and a Solution
Hi all, and welcome to my 2024 Senior Project! 🚀 Today, I’ll cover the beginnings of this project, my rough plans, and some basic introductions.
I'm Advait, a senior, of course, with a special interest in the intersection of technology, specifically computer science, and our day-to-day lives. I’ve explored this by researching action recognition—the technology powering your Wii consoles and home surveillance systems—specifically by making the models more efficient for mobile use. While much of my coding experience has been in backend development, involving more logical and algorithmic work than design, I look forward to learning new skills by tackling the primarily frontend, or design-oriented challenge of creating an app.
Now, amidst the academic rollercoaster of the past eight years, I've witnessed the good and the bad. While recently, our school has been making great strides in allocating resources to mental health, like the Directing Change initiative I participate in, I feel more can be done. To assist in this effort, I’ll be developing an app for student mental health, which will hopefully foster mental health support and destigmatize conversations about it.
Meet my squad: Mr. Rakesh Sharma, Mr. Bhavuk Rajput, and Mr. Utkarsh Ojha who advise me on all the technical aspects of constructing an app using the Flutter framework.
But wait, there’s more! Guidance in all other aspects will be provided by Ms. (or Magistra) Sagal. She teaches and maintains connections with a diverse range of students, from 6th through 12th grade, providing a holistic perspective in development. And of course, I'm in cahoots with the school admin to keep things in ship-shape. 🚢
Hey, Yellow Jackets! Got any ideas (especially the app name), thoughts, or memes? Slide into my email at advait.alluri@gmail.com. Together, we’ll make this app a buzzing (haha) success!
Week 1: Some Code and a Lot of Cold
Hello again friends, and a warm welcome back to my 2024 senior project! If you’ve already forgotten, my project’s main objective is to create a mental health-focused app for the Yellow Jacket student body. Over the last few days, my primary focus has been on polishing the app's frontend, or design component of my application.
This week’s journey introduced me to a variety of bugs 🐛—many nestled in my code, and a rather unwelcome and particularly nasty one that took residence in my stomach. Yup, that’s right, I got sick. Traveling over 2200 miles by train in the past 2 weeks took quite the toll on my body, and so naturally, I spent the majority of this week recovering.
I’m happy to report that I was able to make significant progress with what time I had, and all the app’s pages, or “screens,” are finalized. I’m still working on the switching mechanism between these pages, whether that be a dashboard or a navigation bar at the bottom. Next week, I hope to provide screenshots so you all have a better idea of where the app is headed.
Additionally, I’m currently enrolled in a “Developing Applications for iOS” course at Foothill Community College, which has been a treasure trove of tips and tricks for app dev! I dedicate a few hours each week to tackling assignments and assessments for the course. And for those concerned about platform compatibility—fear not, Android enthusiasts 🤖! I've deliberately opted for a more complex development platform to ensure all types of devices can use the app.
In the coming weeks, I plan to shift gears to backend development, particularly integrating Microsoft Azure to facilitate student logins using their school email IDs.
Thank you for tuning into my blog, and see you next time!
Week 2: Profound Truth Amidst Code’s Pursuit
Was it just me, or did this week go by way faster than usual? Maybe it's just me, but time flies when you're having fun!
Welcome back to my 2024 senior project, where I’m building a mental health app tailored towards our amazing Yellow Jacket student body. This week, my goal was to ‘complete’ what I had left of the frontend, or design portion of the app development.
As I went about this task, I stumbled upon a profound realization: the frontend is a living, breathing entity that won’t ever really be 'complete.’ It's a canvas that allows for continuous refinement and adjustment, responding to my every tiny whim: changing the shape of a button here, or the background color there. Honestly, its design will never truly be at the final stage, even when published. I’ll keep releasing new versions (hopefully) to keep improving the app! And that’s why the process is so fun! It’s that there isn’t necessarily a correct way for this app to take form; it’s a piece of art.
With this newfound perspective, I've made the decision to give the frontend a breather for now and shift my focus to the backend starting next week. I hope to share screenshots very very soon with you all.
Amidst the more pressing work, there's one question lingering in my mind: what should the app be officially named? Should it be something straightforward "Yellow Jacket Resource Hub" or something more catchy like "Beebuzz" or "Resource Hive"? 🐝 🐝
I hope you all are looking forward to the next stages of the app as much as I am. Until next time!
Week 3: A Coding Break, Belly Aches, and Choices to Make
Hi friends, and welcome back! I’m honored to have you here. This week on my road to building the Yellow Jacket mental health app, I decided to take the scenic route 🏞️: focusing less on coding and more on researching my next steps for the backend, which proved to be just as much fun! This included Microsoft Azure, which will not only facilitate student logins using school email IDs but also help with data protection.
Unfortunately, I fell ill yet again, with a severe case of food poisoning. Future note to self: avoid street food, no matter how tempting. 🤒 With some enforced downtime, I had a lot—maybe too much—of time to myself, which led to some deep introspection.
With some college decisions already released, and more to come within the next few weeks, my mental health has been fluctuating, despite my attempts to prioritize it, and I’m not alone in this. Many of my peers are feeling the same whirlwind of emotions. That got me thinking—what if we had a whole section in the app dedicated to college applications for the guidance of all high schoolers? 🤔 What could go in it?
On another note, I’m gearing up for my 22-hour journey home after an entire month abroad! ✈️ It’s been a shorter update this time, but no less thrilling.
See you on the other side!
Post 5: The (Not So) Final Stretch
I’m finally back home—what a relief! While my travels were an absolute blast, I must admit that my plans for being super productive might have taken a bit of a detour. In fact, here's a wild fact for you: I've slept in a grand total of 14 different beds over the past 30 days 🛏️. That's averaging just about two nights per bed! I think I’ll stick to one bed for the next few months…
This week, I’ve been putting some finishing touches on the navigation bar, as I was running into some issues here. I’ve also worked with a friend to draft the survey that will be sent out to our students to better inform the creation of this app. What would you all like to see in an app like this 🤔? Tell me in the comments!
Next week, I’ll finish the login and sign-up APIs using Node.js, and establish some data storage functionality with my SQL. With this, we should be able to save student inputs in the app, like their anonymous daily check-ins and more.
Next week is a big one for me. I've got to show off what I've been working on for a midterm grade. This means that a virtual emulation of the app should be able to run with no errors. Although we’re not even halfway done, it does really feel like I’ve entered the final stretch. Fingers crossed it all goes well (thoughts and prayers accepted and appreciated 🙏🙏)!
I'll keep you all posted on how the presentation goes. Here's hoping for some good news! 🚀
Week 5: Further Backend Development
Welcome back Yellow Jackets (and the various other organisms in our universe) to what is nearly the halfway point of this project!
I’d like to take some time to summarize how far we’ve come in this project so far. For the first few months, I spent time researching various coding languages and software development kits, taking app dev courses, and making flowcharts and diagrams of the prospective app. I met with several school administrators about the vision of the app, and how I can design it to match our school’s needs.
More recently, I’ve started coding both the frontend and the backend of our app. Here’s the color palette we’re looking at right now:
(click here). Yellow Jacket themed, of course! 🐝🐝
This week, I’ve been working further on the login and sign-up APIs using Node.js and established some data storage functionality with MySQL, but have run into some snags in my code recently. What types of data would you like to see collected? I also submitted my final assessment for my app dev course. Let’s hope that goes well…
Now that the commenting feature on this blog has been enabled, feel free to comment your heart away! I’d love any specific ideas or feedback for the app. For example, “What about a page for breathing exercises?” Although not mandatory, you could also include a compliment to make my day like, “Advait, your hair has been on point lately!” 😉
Sending good vibes your way! Until next time.
Week 6: Busy Pollinating (Coding)
While the end of Spring Break is certainly disappointing for some, it marks the beginning of one of the busiest, and most rewarding seasons for all Yellow Jackets: the spring pollination period 🌻! As a Yellow Jacket myself, I see no better way to begin the second half of my senior project, where I’ll be focusing almost exclusively on the backend of the mental health app. Here’s what some of the frontend looks like:
While there are some obvious errors to fix (like that obnoxious Dashboard page topper), I do like the color scheme. What do you guys think? Come back next post to see more screens 👀
This week, I completed the development and testing of a functional login system. However, when I migrate the login credentials from my local environment to the MySQL database, a necessary security measure, the system fails to recognize the correct credentials. Since the API works, I’d say the majority of the login system is complete.
And to end on a good note, some great news: I received an A in my app development course! (phew 😅) Thanks to all who came to my aid with the thoughts and prayers I requested in my previous post.
That’s all for now. See you buzzing around! 🐝 💤
Week 7: Aw crud, time for CRUD!
Hello again dear friends, fans, and fellow for-loop lovers,
Since integration with MySQL wasn’t working properly last week, this week I worked on performing CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations with the database, through code on the node.js backend. This allows me to—yeah you guessed it—create, read, update, and delete data from the MySQL database without actually having to open the MySQL workbench. Essentially, I’m able to handle and troubleshoot all basic data manipulations within the application itself. After adding email/password entries, I was able to ensure that they were actually present, which helped narrow down the root of the problem detailed in last week’s blog.
Additionally, I edited the todo list to be able to cross off items after finishing them, started development on a settings page, and updated the emergency hotline page to make the student confirm that they didn’t tap the ‘call’ button on accident.
It looks like we have only about 2-3 weeks left together on this journey, so I’ll start looking at the process of putting this on Apple and Android stores. Realistically however, beyond the confines of the Senior Project schedule which ends soon, I anticipate working on this app all summer long to make sure it’s ready for the next school year!
I also read through several thoughtful responses to the survey I released to my peers, and they all seemed to come to a consensus on one good addition: a journaling page! I’ve actually been meaning to start for a while now, and perhaps this is the sign I needed 📓.
Thank you for dropping by! See you next week.
Week 8: New Week, New Work, New Style
Hey all, and welcome back to the final buzzing stretch of my 2024 Senior Project!
I want to try a shorter and sweeter style this week, and so without further ado…
A few notable updates:
Since the final presentation for Senior Projects at BASIS Fremont is in about 2 weeks, I have decided to hold off on pushing this app to device app stores, and just refine the local prototype simulation on my computer for the presentation.
This week, and in the coming two weeks, my work will be split between two primary tasks: working on the physical form of the app and preparing my final presentation and report for this project. Of course, as mentioned before, development will continue throughout the summer, since kids aren’t expected to use the app during summer break.
I realized a few features, for example the hotline calling feature, cannot actually be implemented on a simulation, since the simulated phone in my computer has no ‘sim card’ to actually place the call. These features will stay in ‘test mode’ (they won't work)
I am still troubleshooting the MySQL problem mentioned in last week’s blog, and while it isn’t essential to how the app functions, it is essential to the deployment of the app.
I think ‘The Hive’ is a solid name for this app, and I am 78.5% decided on it.
I would ask for feedback on this format in the comments down below, but no one seems to be using my comment section. :( (please leave some comments)
See you next week!
Post 10: Coding, Crafting, and Contemplating by the Coast
Dear friends, family, fellow Yellow Jackets, and all other forms of life, welcome to week nine of my 2024 Senior Project, where I’ve been working on what you can now call “The Hive”: your future go-to mental health app for BASIS students. Today's update comes from the beautiful, misty Half Moon Bay, where the enchanting environment has provided a surge in both creativity and productivity.
Today, as I looked over the vast ocean, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between the tides and the iterative process of app development. Like the ocean's waves that reshape the shore, each line of code over the past few weeks shapes the user experience. Or perhaps I’m thinking about it too much. Regardless, this week wasn’t full of big waves, but rather small ripples: a color change here, or a page added there (college applications, journaling, and a habit tracker page). This is all in preparation for my final product submission on May 10th.
The first component of my final product is a simulation of The Hive, a pre-recorded video. The second component is a report that will include the google survey data, technical instructions to continue building the app, and reflections on this project so that it can be expanded on in future years. While this report is well underway, there's still a lot more to do, which is what I anticipate dedicating the next week of work to. For the app simulation, while I expected to turn in an actual simulation where viewers can use the app, the school informed me that a video would be better, so I’ll be starting to craft that as well.
Thank you all for following along on this journey, and come back next week for some (hopefully) great news on The Hive.
Post 11: Temporary Farewell
According to https://apolloxpestcontrol.com/pest-activity-trends-by-month/, Yellow Jacket populations “increase in May, peak in August, and drop off in October.” While I’m no scientist to deny the probable fact, I know one Yellow Jacket who happens to be signing off this May, instead of buzzing back to life: myself.
Dear Readers,
Welcome to the final blog of my 2024 Senior Project. Whew, what a journey it’s been! From spending 30 days in 14 different beds in the first few weeks of this project to getting food poisoning twice, all while building The Hive, slowly but surely, I’ve learned so much not only about app development but also about myself and my work style. For example, I’ve learned silly things like the fact that I'm most productive before meals, not after. I’ve found unlimited merit in Ms. Shahin’s advice that adding comments to your code really does help, especially with the thousands of lines I’ve written, frontend and backend. One of the most serious lessons I’ve practiced the past few months is, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” a favorite chiasmus (shoutout to Mr. Hanlon). The app was only possible because of the rough designs I made on Google Slides first, and the wireframes I doodled onto my notebook.
So, what does my end product look like then? It’s a fully completed app (see previous blogs to know contents) EXCEPT for any in-app storage functionality with MySql. While I was able to use MySql for student login verification, it’s a little more tricky for other applications, since every single student needs their own storage space, for their own data.
While my senior project officially comes to an end here, much like real Yellow Jackets, I plan to keep working hard this summer. Before the 2024-2025 school year starts, I’ll resolve the storage issue and finetune the app for students in the fall.
I would like to thank Ms. Sagal, Ms. Nagpal, Utkarsh, and Bhavuk for making what seemed like an ambitious proposal a possible reality for the students of our school. I’m honored that I’m helping my younger peers while leaving a unique legacy.
For any incoming BIF Yellow Jackets reading this, you can count on hearing from me, when the app is officially released for public use.
Until then,
Advait Alluri, advait.alluri@gmail.com