Inspiration
In our daily lives, many tools are indispensable yet often sit idle. We aim to eliminate this waste of resources through tool sharing—lending our own tools to those in need and initiating or participating in community service activities, such as tending to flowerbeds or cleaning up parks. Through the sharing of resources and collaborative effort, we not only ensure tools are put to full use but also bring neighbors closer together, transforming the community into a warm, cohesive home.
What it does
Environmental Insights Enter your postcode to check local air quality, clean energy usage, and neighborhood green spaces.
Community Action & Stories Join or organize volunteer activities, share tools to support projects, and post your stories to inspire the community.
Tool Sharing List your idle tools for neighbors to borrow, or search and borrow available tools from others nearby.
How we built it
Zhao Yuwei (Backend): FastAPI + SQLite shared data layer—demonstrating identity and sessions; data for tools, loans, and tasks; loan/return state machines and idempotent writes; partial unique indexes to prevent concurrent duplicate reservations; derived states and completion validation for task requirements; and API endpoints for community, environmental, and impact statistics. 203 backend tests.
Chen Liangkun (Data Scraping & Caching + Application Design): Handled the scraping and parsing of data from Postcodes.io (postcode geolocation), Open-Meteo (air quality), NESO (grid carbon intensity), and Overpass (green spaces); implemented offline demo caching, source attribution, and graceful degradation—ensuring core borrowing/returning functionality remains operational even if any external data source fails. Responsible for planning the system's functional modules and designing page interaction logic.
Yilin Zhang (GitHub maintenance and fixes): Key bug fixes for the task matching and results module (pure functions, no DOM/network interactions), integration documentation and contract testing, and template switching, ensuring seamless merging for the four-person team.
Li Wentian (Web Design): Page framework, community homepage, tool list and posting interface, "My Borrows & Loans," and loading/error feedback—featuring a "Cream White & Forest Green" community aesthetic; mobile-friendly.
Challenges we ran into
- Due to the overly broad scope, we may not have time to complete the full community service component.
- Webpage elements are misaligned.
- Errors in the connection between the frontend and backend are preventing data updates.
- From a user's perspective, the app has numerous illogical functional designs.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- Excellent web design
- Robust backend system
- Easy to use
- Dedicated to building a warm, mutually supportive community
What we learned
We recognize that technology is not merely an accumulation of logic and code, but a bridge that reshapes neighborhood relationships and revitalizes the community. Learn how to propose concrete, feasible solutions and modules in response to vague requirements. We learned how to narrow the project scope and complete the necessary modules within a limited timeframe. Mastered parallel agile development and branch management workflows.
What's next for Borrow Next Door
Developing from demo to real-world neighborhood implementation: refining user and community registration systems (real-identity and community verification); supporting slot requirements for multiple tools of the same type; incorporating photos of tasks and tools; adding more task templates (e.g., community composting, street tree maintenance); Show the location of the nearest available tools. Tools often sit idle in garages, yet the very item needed for the next community initiative might be right next door
Built With
- fastapi
- html
- html5
- javascript
- open-meteo
- open-meteo-api
- overpassapi
- postcodes.io
- pydantic
- python
- sqlite
- uvicorn
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