AeroDash

Inspiration

As broke college students, we’re always looking for ways to make passive income that don’t involve plasma donation, DoorDash at 2 a.m., or questionable side hustles. While complaining about skyrocketing shipping costs, we realized something huge:

People almost always fly with unused baggage space.
On average, travelers have 4–5 lbs of extra capacity in their carry-on or checked bags.

Yet shipping remains:

expensive
slow
painfully inefficient

So we asked:

What if shipping could move at the speed of flights — and cost a fraction of FedEx/UPS — by using capacity that already exists?

That question became AeroDash: a peer-to-peer shipping marketplace powered by travelers’ unused baggage space.

What it does

AeroDash creates a three-sided marketplace connecting:

Senders

Drop off items at a secure smart-locker hub
Create a digital record with photos + item details
Packages become available for eligible travelers

Travelers

Browse nearby shipments
Pick up from lockers using QR codes
Validate condition with photos
Carry the items using leftover baggage capacity
Earn passive income after completing delivery

Receivers

Pick up from destination lockers using QR codes
Confirm delivery with final verification photos

All interactions are time-stamped, photo-verified, and tracked through the app.

AeroDash makes shipping:

Up to 75% cheaper
Hours faster than FedEx/UPS
Inherently greener by using capacity that already exists

How we built it

Core architecture

Frontend: React
Backend: FastAPI
Database: Supabase
AI Photo Verification: Automated image-matching to detect inconsistencies between sender → traveler → receiver photos
Chain of Custody: Every handoff includes required images, timestamps, and status updates
Safety Layer:
- TSA + FAA-based item restriction engine
- Traveler ID verification (government ID scan + selfie match)
- Insurance option for senders based on declared value

Workflow we engineered

Sender drops item in a locker → submits 3 photos + details
Traveler picks it up → verifies with photos
Traveler carries it on their scheduled flight
Receiver retrieves item at destination locker → final photo verification
Traveler gets paid instantly after confirmation

We also modeled pricing:
[ \text{Price} = \$10/\text{lb (domestic)} \quad \text{or} \quad \$20/\text{lb (international)} ]

This massively undercuts FedEx/UPS while improving speed.

Challenges we ran into

1. TSA & regulatory constraints

Determining what can and cannot be transported required building an item-restriction engine aligned with:

TSA prohibited lists
airline baggage rules
liquid/perishable/fragile item constraints

2. Ensuring trust in a P2P system

We needed protection for all sides:

ID verification for travelers
unsealed package rule for transparency
image-based chain-of-custody
optional insurance
on-platform monitored messaging

3. Liability clarity

We are a marketplace, not a carrier.
We engineered:

dispute resolution via image evidence
disclaimers around security (airport scanning is the final checkpoint)
clear traveler responsibilities

4. Building smooth locker interactions

Smart-locker flows required QR-code logic, verification steps, and secure handoffs that still feel simple.

5. Hackathon time pressure

Balancing UI, AI matching, marketplace logic, safety features, and pitch-deck visuals in 48 hours was… intense.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Built a functional end-to-end prototype with AI verification + full user flows
Designed a realistic regulatory-compliant model
Created a pricing system that beats major carriers by 75%+
Built a polished pitch deck with market size, financial model, and 5-year rollout plan
Developed locker-based logistics with QR-code chain-of-custody
Identified a real multibillion-dollar inefficiency in the shipping ecosystem