Inspiration
The inspiration for Kerbside came from our collective passion for environmental sustainability and a desire to create positive change in our communities. We were inspired by the growing need to reduce waste and promote a more eco-friendly lifestyle. We wanted to harness the power of technology to make it easier for people to share and upcycle unwanted items, fostering a culture of reuse and recycling.
What it does
Kerbside is a platform that empowers users to find and share unwanted possessions with their neighbors and the community. It serves as a virtual marketplace for upcycling, where users can post items they no longer need, making them available for others to give new life to.
How we built it
Kerbside was built using a combination of modern web development technologies and frameworks including HTML, Bootstrap, ExpressJS, Auth0, Slack API. We utilized a user-friendly front-end interface to ensure a seamless experience for our users. The backend is powered by a robust MySQL database system that securely manages item listings. The user data is securely stored using Auth0 API. Our team collaborated closely, leveraging each member's expertise in design, development, and sustainability to create this platform.
Challenges we ran into
During the development of Kerbside, we encountered several challenges. Initially, we had planned to use Streamlit and MongoDB to host the website. However, we quickly realised that Streamlit did not have the right technology for our site, so we had to change our tech stack to host the website using Google Cloud. However, this also gave us significant difficulty as we were refused access to use the software by Google and we decided to host the website locally using nodeJS. Furthermore, we were unable to get MongoDB to work due to eduroam blocking the connection so we had to quickly switch to using MySQL on a local server. This was initially difficult as we had problems sharing the files but we used Git effectively to ensure our versions of the site were up to date.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
After having problem after problem in the first 12 hours we had to drop MongoDB Atlas as it was incompatible with eduroam. This resulted in starting with nothing short of a clean slate with only 12 hours to go. In order to make as much progress as we have within half the available time, and with such little rest, we have had to push ourselves to persevere and have faith in the quality of our core concept. We are proud to see the hard work we put in reflected in our product, with the site having enough functionality to call it a working prototype that well represents our vision.
What we learned
We learned technologies such as Bootstrap, back-end JS, and MySQL. However, more importantly, we developed key soft skills such as how to work well in a team facing tight time constraints, effective delegation, and group brainstorming, as well as most importantly how to give the situation a reality check and put an idea on hold if progress has plateaued and then restructure the plan on the fly to make sure the core targets are still met.
What's next for Kerbside
Kerbside is currently in the proof of concept/prototype stage. If it were to be pursued without such tight time constraints we would first go back to basics to research and brainstorm how best we could implement the design by contacting the people it would help most and finding out what would make it really work for them. We would then continue to completely rework the concept and tech structure from scratch this time making sure we give each aspect of the process the time it deserves. When it comes to features that we already have planned we have a list: We would like to be able to filter items by location and other properties such as dimensions, weight etc. And create the easiest way possible to tag items and find relevant items through their tags.
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