Fluid: Empowerment Through Menstrual Data

To raise funding for menstrual products, as Fluid we are transforming menstrual data to cryptocurrency: PCoins. Using blockchain, we allow women across the world to use PCoins for menstrual products.

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Inspiration

Period poverty is a problem impacting women across the world in their studies, work, and life. To raise awareness and funding for menstrual hygiene products, we were passionate to create innovative and high tech solutions. After attending workshops during the hackathon about blockchain and google API, we were inspired to utilize these technologies for the social issue.

What it does

After creating a profile, you consent if you want to provide your data to Fluid (you are welcome to not). In exchange of your data, you gain PCoins for each day of your cycle. Your coins are cryptocurrency that can be used across the globe. These PCoins are then converted into funding for menstrual hygiene products for women who struggle to afford them.

How we built it

We first started off by drawing our idea and paper prototyping. Next, we designed our UI in Adobe XD. Then we started building our website with React, JS, and TypeScript. Additionally, we created our PCoins cryptocurrency using Stellar Laboratory. We then worked on merging our cryptocurrency implementation with the website UI, which still needs more work.

Challenges we ran into

Due to time limitations, it was hard to accomplish all the goals we had for Fluid. We believe our app has more potential to grow moving forward without time constraints.

Since it was our first exposure to blockchain and Google-API, we had a hard time figuring out the functionality and implementation. It required a lot of time and discussion to become familiar with the topics. As issues arose later in the night, we were unable to reach out for help from mentors.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We had efficient and collaborative teamwork. Our work consisted of many discussions where everyone was able to contribute to the project. Our diverse perspectives and backgrounds shaped the project in incredible ways. Beyond everything we had a great time together and had so much fun!!

What we learned

We developed our teamwork and communication skills in ideation and development. From the technical perspective, we gained knowledge about blockchain with a focus on Stellar, machine learning with Google Cloud API, prototyping and UI design with Adobe-XD. We were also able to put knowledge we gained through our computer science classes in university into solving real life problems, which really helped us appreciate software engineering and entrepreneurship.

What's next for Fluid: Empowerment Through Menstrual Data

In the long term, our app has the potential of establishing national and international non-profit partnerships for expanding our impact.

In the short term, we would envision testing our product with users to measure their interest to improve the user experience. We also need to elaborate more on our Machine Learning Model and the Cryptocurrency to become an industry leader.

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