Fridge Buddy
- Java
- Firebase
- GitHub
- Node.js
- Android Studio
- API's
Project Summary
FridgeBuddy is a computer vision application used to detect food items and recommend recipes using modern recipe API’s. With FridgeBuddy, you can create and manage a Fridge, join an existing Fridge, update your Fridge inventory manually or by taking a picture of your food items, and track expiration dates so food never goes to waste! The project was implemented in a 10-person agile group and work was done remotely using GitHub version control. Android Studio was used to write code and display the application on an emulator. The front-end was written in Java and the backend used a Node.js server. The Microsoft Azure API was used to scan food items, while the Spoonacular API was used to recommend recipes.
The project was created when COVID initially made its way to the US, and UCSD was forced to make all classes online. One relevant thing to the entire team was that we all had to make food at home, as dining halls and other food options were limited/closed. Some of the project members had very little to no experience cooking for themselves as they always had options before. Therefore, we came up with the idea to create an app to track food items in a fridge and recommend recipes based off those items. It was a simple way for people who had no experience to get introduced to a world of cooking, and for new experienced cooks to try new recipes. Overall, it is a wonderful app to manage food inventory and find new recipes to try!
My Role and Experience
Fridge Buddy was my first experience building an Android Application and working on an agile software development team. My role on this project was “Database Specialist” and my main responsibility was maintaining a Firebase database to securely store user input and account information. Some things stored in the Firebase database includes inventory, expiration dates, personal and group Fridges, and more. I had to work with both the frontend and backend team to ensure all the information was being read and stored correctly in the database. I was also in charge of creating artifacts like Use Cases, User Stories, and the Database Schema.
Overall, I got some wonderful experience working on an Agile software team, working with databases, and developing an Android application using Android Studio.