baaba.ng

AI-powered legal assistance for student and housing Platform

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Inspiration

My name is Olayinka Shittu, a 400L student of FUTMINNA, Nigeria. One of the biggest problems that Nigerian students like myself face is housing: quality of housing, finding good student apartments, and constantly overpaying for housing without even getting basic amenities like a working plumbing system, electricity, and security. Landlords tend to oppress students, mostly because students don’t know their rights. So, I was inspired to create a web application that has the potential to solve this problem and make the housing experience less difficult. Also, from my experience with roommates and those of other students, I noticed that there has never been a system dedicated to pairing up roommates. All of these inspired me.

What it does

Baaba.ng is a full-stack web application powered by AI. It is for Nigerian students looking for accommodation near their school areas. Baaba.ng provides a dashboard for landlords to list properties. Agents can also list properties, and students (tenants) can explore listings and book inspections. Baaba.ng also provides AI legal assistance (beta). I trained an AI agent with Nigerian tenancy laws of major states using Dappier, so you can ask questions and get advice based on your rights as a tenant or a landlord. The roommate matching platform (beta) uses your lifestyle choices and integrates with your social media and Spotify to find a roommate on the platform that fits your preferences. Payments can also be made on the app using escrow management (beta).

How I built it

I built it from scratch using Bolt.new and 21st.dev for UI components with prompts, Supabase for edge functions and database. I also wrote some of the code by linking it to my GitHub repo and doing some edits locally on my VS Code.

Challenges I ran into

The major challenge I ran into was when the project became too large. It was heartbreaking because I couldn’t prompt anymore, and I was scared I couldn’t complete the project. I also experienced a lot of out-of-context execution by the AI. Then my token got finished—damn, that one pained me the most, lol. But I managed to pull through regardless.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I am proud of the UI/UX, especially because it was well thought out from the student’s point of view. I’m proud of the role-based authentication that automatically determines the dashboards you have access to based on your choice during onboarding. Most importantly, I am proud of my resilience. Even though I doubted myself, being a 21-year-old boy from Nigeria participating in the world’s largest hackathon, the odds were against me to win—but I am proud that I completed what I started.

What I learned

I learned a lot building this project, especially when it comes to handling the buildup of very robust applications like this. I should always split the project into smaller parts so it doesn’t get too large. I also learned how to use dynamic UI components from 21st.dev. Even though I haven’t perfected the integration of my Dappier AI agent, I learned how to train an AI agent. This is something I cherish. Most importantly, I learned how to finish what I start and not give up even when the odds are stacked against me.

What's next for baaba.ng

Baaba.ng is going to launch next academic session, which is September. I’ll begin in my school, then expand to other universities. Baaba.ng will also have a buy-and-sell hub for students, and a skill-rendering service for skilled students to offer their services on the platform. We’ll also be partnering with universities to make hostel accommodations more seamless. All of this will be done, regardless of whether I win or not.

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