CollabCart

Landing Page
Auth0 Login
Prompting for Errand Suggestions
Receiving Insights and Options for Potential Errand Items
Adding Suggestions to Cart

Inspiration

As university students ourselves, we understand how overwhelming the increase in responsibility can be, especially when it comes to managing what we eat. Transitioning to independence can be challenging, and CollabCart is designed to alleviate this stress by leveraging artificial intelligence to streamline the grocery shopping process.

What it does

CollabCart is a grocery shopping platform that functions as both a grocery list and a tool for AI-assisted purchasing decisions. This is particularly beneficial for individuals with dietary restrictions, as the AI, powered by Groq, offers fast and reliable suggestions, providing quick information on-the-go.

How we built it

We used Tailwind CSS for the front end and MongoDB Atlas for the back end, designing and developing the application in VS Code. To power our AI, we used Groq's API to create our chatbot that acts as a personal informant when grocery shopping. We also integrated Auth0 to create user accounts, enhancing security through an authentication system.

Challenges we ran into

Given the personal nature of the problem we aimed to solve, we faced a continuous flow of feature ideas that risked overcomplicating the platform and hindering the completion of our prototype. After spending considerable time on ideation, we found ourselves racing against the clock to finalize our project.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Even though we faced challenges in finalizing a solid idea, we are proud to have worked on a project that addresses issues personally relevant to our lives. Through this process, we’ve grown as developers, applying our skills to solve real problems we encounter daily. Our ability to create a practical solution that improves our grocery shopping experience reflects our commitment to using technology to enhance our own lives and those of others.

What we learned

As mentioned in our challenges, we discovered that the ideation process was particularly difficult, with developing a solid idea proving to be arguably harder than any of the technical tasks required. Our group was only able to successfully agree on our idea 15 hours after the hacking period began.

What's next for CollabCart

At CollabCart, we believe there are still problems to address in group shopping. For university students, shopping in groups can be complicated, hard to track, and an annoying hassle. By incorporating a collaborative function, our app allows users to manage their own shopping carts alongside a communal basket. This significantly simplifies the process and gives university students more time to focus on their studies.