TRACKING COVID LIVE Students of Mahindra Ecole Centrale, Hyderabad, launch a web-application ‘CovIndia’, a live districtwise COVID-19 tracker
This might be just what the doctor ordered! Students of Mahindra Ecole Centrale, a college set up by Tech Mahindra — a subsidiary owned by industrialist Anand Mahindra’s Mahindra Group — launched a website called ‘CovIndia’ (covindia.netlify.com) on March 15.
Claimed to be India’s first live district-wise COVID-19 tracker, the website is expected to offer statistics and data of coronavirus affected areas according to districts.
Apparently, the idea was the brainchild of Assistant Professor Achal Agarwal from the Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CSE).
N.S. Raghav, a third-year CSE student who was one of the members of the developing team, revealed to us why they thought the website was necessary. “Initially, although only a few places of Maharashtra were affected with COVID-19, online reports started showing the entire state in ‘red zone’, which was very scary and panic-inducing,” explains Raghav.
“We understood then the significance of providing comprehensive district-wise statistics.”
The website team, which also includes Rishab Ramanathan, Srikar, Rohith Gilla, Qurram Zaheer, Aman and Mayank, used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to start collecting data and statistics of the number of COVID-19 affected patients from sources such as newspapers and television reports. In addition, the team made confirmations on the statistics by double-checking them with local body officials of the affected patients.
“Then after due diligence, we upload the data on our website,” adds Raghav.
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ACCURACY
Even as the website traffic began growing, it got a major shot in the arm when industrialist Anand Mahindra first retweeted one of the tweets by the Mahindra Ecole Centrale on its page and then later retweeted a published article CovIndia on 18th March.
As on Sunday, the 29th of March, the website, which cost $150 for its building and implementation, registered around 10 lakh 50 thousand views from over 140 counties. However, the with surge in traffic came the need for greater responsibility.
“We had initially thought the website would be a small project and were never prepared for the about high volume of traffic,” explains Qurram, another team member who is also in the third year of the CSE course. “But it was getting very hard for us to track each individual numerical increase and manually update the website.”
The team realised that they had to automate the process as much as possible. “Soon, we began facing challenges in the automation process, especially in trying to find a balance between the manual work and the automation. Even collecting accurate data and getting the facts right was becoming increasingly difficult,” adds Qurram.
“Also, balancing the server load to withstand such high website traffic was demanding,” he shares.
THE SUPPORT SYSTEMS
The team approached Professors Dr Bharghava
Rajaram and Raj Narayanan for their guidance to help them see the project through. But the uniqueness of the website to provide district-wise statistics aside, the coordination and dedication among the students has been commendable and heartwarming.
According to Rishab, a firstyear CSE student, apart from the opportunity to learn and grow in a challenging scenario, he takes back fond memories of the teamwork.
“Managing both studies and the website wasn’t demanding. Moreover, as the college has been shut down until at least April 15, we could completely dedicate our time on the website,” shares Rishab.
Taking pride in the efforts the whole team has put in, Raghav looks at the project as the need of the hour and a social responsibility. And he is grateful for the support he and his team got.
“The experience of working under such pressure situations is a validation of my credibility to pursue my master’s and PhD programme. Our college management has supported us a great deal and bore the entire expenditure. They even exempted our team from attending the online classes if they were to commence soon,” says the 20year-old Raghav, beaming.
The website team which includes Rishab Ramanathan, Srikar, Rohith Gilla, Qurram Zaheer, Aman and Mayank, used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to start collecting data and statistics of the number of COVID-19 affected patients from sources such as newspapers and television reports
Initially, although only a few places of Maharashtra were affected with COVID-19, online reports started showing the entire state in ‘red zone’, which was very scary and panic-inducing. We understood then the significance of providing comprehensive district-wise statistics
N.S. Raghav, a third-year CSE student