PlanetShare

Inspiration

Charles had a wonderfully exciting (lol) story about how he got to Hack the North, and we saw an opportunity for development ^-^! We want to capitalize on the idea of communal ridesharing, making it accessible for everyone. We also wanted to build something themed around data analytics and sustainability, and tracking carbon footprint via rideshare app seemed like a great fit.

What it does

We want to provide a better matchmaking system for drivers/riders centered around sustainability and eco-friendliness. Our app will match drivers/riders based on categories such as vehicle type, distance, trip similarly, and location - but why not just use Uber, or other rideshare apps? Isn’t this the exact same thing? Yes, but here’s the catch - it’s FREE! Wow that’s so cool.

How we built it

Our two talented web UI/UX designers created multiple iterations of wireframes in Figma, before translating it into a beautiful frontend web app.

Our very pog backend developers built all the database APIs, real-time chat system, and search/filter functionality.

Challenges we ran into

The most time-consuming part was the idea generation. We spent a lot of time on our first night (we stayed up past 4 a.m.) and the entirety of Saturday morning until we landed on an idea that we thought was impactful, and had room for us to put our own twist on it.

We also faced our fair share of bugs and roadblocks during the creation process. Backend is hard, man, and integration even more so. Having to construct so many React components and ensure a functional backend in such a short timespan was quite the challenge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were definitely most proud of our designs and wireframes made in Figma, which were then translated into a beautiful React frontend. Our team put a lot of emphasis into making a user-friendly design and translating it into an app that people would actually try out. Our team also put a lot of hard work into the backend messaging system, which required a lot of trial-and-error, debugging, and a final great success.

What we learned

In an era dominated by AI apps and projects, a pure software project is becoming increasingly rare. However, we learned that creating something that we are passionate about and would personally use means more than developing a product for the sole purpose of chasing industry hype. We learned a lot about matching algorithms for social platforms, technologies that enable real-time instant messaging, as well as the challenges of integration between frontend, backend, and databases.

What's next for PlanetShare

Building our web app into a mobile app for people to download and use on-the-fly. Also obtaining more metrics towards helping users improve their carbon footprint, such as integrating with public transit or other sustainable modes of transportation like cycling.

Also, we can: Integrate rewards points by partnering with companies like RBC (Avion rewards) to incentivize customers to carpool more Extend our functionality beyond just carpooling - we can track other forms of transportation as well, and recommend alternative options when carpooling isn’t available Leverage machine learning and data analytics to graph trends and make predictions about carbon emission metrics, just like a personal finance tracker Introduce a healthy dose of competition - benchmark yourself against your friends!