Inspiration
After experiences in the ride-sharing market that were impersonal and sometimes felt unsafe, we felt that our idea of ridesharing with neighbors was a great and safe alternative for people of all ages to get where they need to go while also bonding with members of their community in a unique way!
What it does
CommunityCarpool allows users to select their community within the app and then pairs neighbors who are offering rides and requesting rides to the same place in order to make sure all members feel safe and connected to their community.
How we built it
We started out brainstorming ideas for multiple hacks and sketching them on paper. Once we decided which challenge interested us the most, we laid out the design for all of the content for each screen of CommunityCarpool. After this, we used HTML to encode the UI for our webpages. Then we used jQuery and wrote Javascript code to add functionality and make the website interactive with the user. We also incorporated the Google Maps API so that users of CommunityCarpool can select locations that they are going to or need transportation to.
Challenges we ran into
Our first challenge was really just coming to a consensus on a hack we all wanted to work on that we could get reasonably done within the time constraints of the hackathon. In addition, we had to learn new things as we went along, utilizing the strengths of different team members. We also didn't have any prior experience with jQuery or APIs in general. So, we ran into issues that we didn't know how to approach at first, but with guidance from Google and the mentors we were able to implement our new knowledge in this hack!
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of the fact that we stepped out of our comfort zones to create something we never have before. Also, for two of our three members, it was our first hackathon, so we were proud to have been able to work in a collaborative environment with so many female peers!
What we learned
We learned how to code as a team and work collaboratively under pressure! It was awesome to be so committed to an idea that we had the experience of working non-stop the whole night to finish. We also learned so much about jQuery and APIs that we're excited to share with other students back at our schools.
What's next for CommunityCarpool
We hope to learn how to code in AndroidStudio in order to turn CommunityCarpool into a mobile app. In addition, we would like to devote more time to the UI to make our application more user-friendly.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.