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Andy Aguirre
Andy Aguirre

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I Built an AI-Powered Eco Impact Calculator for My University 🌍

#devchallenge #weekendchallenge #webdev #ai

DEV Weekend Challenge: Earth Day

This is a submission for the Weekend Challenge: Earth Day Edition

What I Built

EcoScore AI is a web application that evaluates your environmental impact in seconds and provides recommendations to improve your sustainability habits.

The goal is not just to calculate a score, but to understand real environmental behavior.

Demo

🔗 Live Demo: https://eco-score-frontend.vercel.app/

Code

🔗 GitHub Repository: https://github.com/Andyx1923/eco-score-ai

How I Built It

🛠️ Stack

  • Frontend: Angular
  • Backend: Node.js + Express
  • Database: MongoDB Atlas
  • AI: Google Gemini API (planned full integration)
  • Deployment: Vercel (frontend) + Render (backend)

⚙️ Architecture 

Angular → Express API → MongoDB → AI (Gemini)
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🔄 Flow

  1. User selects:
  • Transport type
  • Plastic usage
  • Energy consumption

  1. Data is sent to backend

  2. Backend:

  • Calculates EcoScore
  • Stores aggregated data
  • (Planned) Sends data to Gemini for personalized insights

🚧 Challenges

  • MongoDB authentication errors
  • Deployment issues (Vercel 404 routing)
  • CORS problems between frontend and backend
  • Environment configuration (dev vs production)
  • API integration debugging

These issues helped me understand real-world full-stack development.

🌍 Real-World Impact Vision

This project is designed to go beyond a demo.

My goal is to implement EcoScore AI at the
Technical University of Machala (UTMACH).

By collecting anonymous responses, we can:

  • Measure environmental habits of students
  • Analyze sustainability trends
  • Generate real data insights

📊 Why This Matters

With enough data, we can answer:

  • How sustainable is our university community?
  • What habits need improvement?
  • Where should we take action?

This could help drive initiatives like:

  • Tree planting 🌳
  • Sustainable transport campaigns 🚲
  • Plastic reduction programs ♻️

🤖 AI Vision

Currently, recommendations are basic.

The next step is to fully integrate Google Gemini to:

  • Generate personalized sustainability advice
  • Replace static messages with dynamic insights
  • Adapt recommendations based on behavior

🔮 Future Improvements

  • User authentication
  • Historical tracking
  • Analytics dashboard
  • Full AI integration
  • University-level deployment

🏷️ Prize Categories

This project aims to qualify for:

👉 Best Use of Google Gemini

🧠 Final Thoughts

This started as a simple Earth Day project.

But it evolved into something bigger:

A tool that could help a real community understand and improve its environmental impact.

And that’s the kind of software I want to build.

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