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!