MetaDesign Solutions
MetaDesign SolutionsA global safety information (data) provider to the Public Services sectors in 30 nations
Overview
The service provider achieved the development of a safety solution primarily aimed at mitigating security risks for women in public spaces, with our engineering solutions.
They sought our services to build out an application for to assess the safety of different areas within a city (urban safety) by crowdsourcing data on various safety parameters such as (for example) lighting, visibility, work areas/other hazards, crowds and public transport availability. This data is then overlaid with other data and used to generate safety scores and maps, safe zones and so on. This helps local governments, urban planners, and other stakeholders understand the on-ground issues and guides efforts to implement safety interventions based on the findings.
about the client
The company is a 10 plus year old information and data provider to Public Services (Govt. – Urban dev., Infrastructure, Transportation), NGOs, NFPs, Social organizations, and City corporations working in 75 Cities, 16 countries and with global multilateral bodies partners such as UN (World Bank, Development banks) and municipalities. As a social enterprise which provides a number of technology solutions targeted at making cities safer, especially for women, the company is headquarted in India.
Industry Domain
Service Category (Service-line)
Digital Platform/Product Engineering
Technologies Used
Php, MySQL
LAMP Framework
AWS Hosting
Android
Challenges
The client wanted to build a safety solution which uses apps to collect information and engage with individuals and uses these insights effectively in ensuring the safety of women. Data collected by the application is to be shared with governments, NGO’s, City planners, and other parties who wish to use this data to make a difference. To achieve this, the following was required to be addressed:
Vast Data Collection: The company needed a solution capable of collecting extensive amounts of data from various sources.
Data Analysis and Segmentation: The solution required the ability to analyse the collected data and classify it into meaningful, contextual segments.
Robust Portal: The company needed a robust, reliable and high-performance portal to process large-scale data efficiently.
Regular Data Backups: The solution had to include a mechanism for taking regular backups of all relevant information.
Report Generation: The requirement of a portal that could generate concise reports based on the collected data, displayed on a full-scale map for each city and with clarity was very important.
Solution Scope and Services
After extensive consultations with the client, MDS developed an environment for auditors in the company to quickly have a complete overview of the data being collected along with providing the ability to upload images. This helped in codifying the cities.
MDS created a complete solution using an application stack which included MySQL, PHP, AWS and S3 technologies which were divided across several modules.
MDS analysts performed a thorough analysis of the project scope and decided on dividing the project into several modules to prevent the service from becoming cumbersome. While ensuring that these processes functioned well concurrently was a challenge, we chose technologies which would be capable of working together seamlessly.
Dashboard
A user-friendly interface was created to display information collected via several sources in a concise manner. This information could then be shared with several agencies with the right access to enable them to use it suitably.
Portal
Developed a robust and Intuitive portal which could process large volumes of data effectively and generate reports based on this collected data.
Android Application
Created an Android application which is to be installed on the end user’s smartphones. This application would show users their assigned routes and take pictures at regular intervals based on the vehicle’s speed.
Backend Development
We deployed several systems and technologies which would work concurrently to create a stable and scalable backend service on the LAMP stack.
Data captured using apps fitted in cars/taxis was seamlessly uploaded to S3 bucket servers. This was collated with the data captured from the portal and processed into meaningful data across various audit parameters.
PingDom, New Relic were integrated for server monitoring and ensuring uptime. Automated Backups were ensured with a seamless integration of Skeddly.
Results
Given that this was an extremely ambitious vision which required a multitude of applications and processes working together seamlessly to ensure the service runs perfectly which in turn ensured user safety, the project was satisfying experience for us and the customer.