[2020] Second year student George Karabassis has created Covid19livespread, a website that presents detailed Covid-19 data and statistics from around the world in one clear, user-friendly place. Image The central aim of the project is to provide a platform for Covid-19 data that puts the user at the centre, ensuring that it is easy to find the information you are looking for presented in a clear, concise way. In order to achieve this Covid19livespread uses a range of graphs, maps and even an interactive 3D globe to present data collected from Worldometer, Johns Hopkins University and local government websites. The user interface is easy to navigate and fun to use, and the site is also optimised for mobile devices. Another key aim of the project is to gather data from countries all over the world and present it in one place, saving users from searching endlessly online to find the information they want. By providing data of lots of different countries using local government sites, the website also facilitates comparison between these countries, another useful tool for the user. In future George hopes to include both the latest data and historical data for each country, province and region, so that comparison can be made both over time and between countries and more localised areas. I remember looking for coronavirus cases in Edinburgh myself but couldn't find any until I "dig down" into the internet. Whichever tracking website I would use, none of them would provide detailed data for my home country Greece, nor Scotland. Anything I did find was only be after extensive research, and the website wouldn't look great at all so I wouldn't be satisfied. George Karabassis on what motivated him to create Covid19livespread George is currently working to improve the website in a variety of ways, including gathering data from more countries and provinces, improving speed loading times and overall user experience. He hopes to provide the latest statistics along with historical data for each country, allowing the user to track the spread of Covid-19 over time and see the impact of government regulations and guidance. The ultimate aim is to enable anyone in the world to instantly see the number of cases, deaths and recoveries in their own country and/ or area, as well as how these have changed over time. George is also currently working on Project ProtectUs. It’s goal is to facilitate hospitals in providing efficient, appropriate and comfortable Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for their staff by connecting them with PPE producers. The project’s website provides PPE design templates, which can be downloaded and used to produce equipment to the standard expected in hospitals and other care facilities. The project then assists with the transportation of the product to hospitals that need it most, acting as a middle man between the producers and the hospitals. Although providing PPE to hospitals is the main focus of Project ProtectUs, a secondary aim is to make comfortable PPE available to the general population as well. Image Related links George's personal page This article was published on 2024-03-18
