Note: Loo Bot Phone Number: (424) 785-2026

Inspiration

The inspiration came from tackling down discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community. Being discriminated against for being who you are and being denied access to bathroom and other services because of that was something we were not too fond of. We took it upon ourselves to help out members of this wonderful community, more specifically those who are homeless and tech savvy, and created something that is so simple to use in an attempt to connect them to services that they seek.

What it does

Our app connects those without wifi-access to gender neutral restrooms and charging outlets nearby. All that the user has to do is text our phone number.

How We built it

We built our services using twilio, api.ai and different apis we used from sites like refugerestrooms.org and google places. We then integrated intents within api.ai and connected them to our twilio phone number that would then bring about information from the cloud in heroku which sent back information from refugerestrooms.org and google places.

Challenges I ran into

Training our intents was a bit difficult for there are millions of ways that an interaction can take place between our uses and our bot. Also, connecting places nearby with users in need, and training our bot to know whether an establishment is open or not took some digging.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We are proud to be able to to reach out and impact that lives of those in deed. Although it may not be in a large scale yet, i feel honored that i can create something that can touch and impact so many people who are in need, in a positive effective way.

What I learned

I learned that you dont have to relate to anything or anyone in particular to lend a helping hand. At the end of the days we are all humans, created equally and we should strive to always help those in need. There is nothing more rewarding than to be able to create something that can benefit the lives of others'.

What's next for LooBot

We started LooBoot 2 weeks prior to demo day. With such little time on our side, we have created an MVP that touches solely on gender neutral restrooms and phone outlets nearby for those needing this service. We plan on growing and expanding our service by integrating shelters, housing accessibility, soup kitchens and much more.