If I Knew Then

Safe Space for Women in Tech to share experiences and learn from each other.

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Inspiration 💡

Our inspiration came from being two women in the tech field who have always sought out a support system like many others. We were lucky to find each other during our freshman year of college at the University of Central Florida due to a program we were a part of called GEMS (or Girls Excelling in Math & Science). The ability to reach out to one another, whether it may be for help or a listening ear, has always been valuable. We wanted to create a platform where other women like us can have that same support system with a few clicks.

What it does 👩‍💻

If I Knew Then (aka iikt.tech) is a web-platform that allows women aspiring or already within the field to ultimately connect with one another. The main page called ‘Posts’ is a discussion forum where users can raise questions, share stories about their experiences, and upvote the ones they found most helpful. Let’s be honest, if we knew then what we know now things may be different so, why not share that in order to help someone?

How we built it 🔨

We created “If I Knew Then” using a LAMP stack:

  • Figma for designing and prototyping
  • Google Cloud Platform for hosting
  • Domain.com for domain name
  • HTML/CSS/Javascript
  • PHP for API endpoints

Challenges we ran into 🤯

We ran into an issue with Google Cloud Platform’s site hosting alongside the Domain Name Servers not updating very quickly. Besides that, our main challenges were dusting off forgotten knowledge in using CSS. Our other challenge was that we were unavailable the first night so we started on day two and completed this project in just 10 hours!

Accomplishments that we're proud of 🥇

Over the course of KnightHacks we learned so much and are proud of stepping over every challenge we ran into. We are proud of getting over the fear of Google Cloud Platform and actually learning and being able to host a site using it. We are also so very proud of finally putting this brainchild into reality! We are so excited to share this with you all.

What we learned 🧠

As beginner level hackers at our second ever hackathon, we learned quite a bit. We learned the in’s and out’s of creating a Google Cloud Project and hosting a LAMP website with it! As well, we learned how to use Google Compute Engine and Google Virtual Machines. Besides that we got some great knowledge on using JavaScript and HTML and CSS.

What's next for If I Knew Then ⌚

The future of If I Knew Then looks bright with future features that include:

  • Searching for coding partners, groups, tutors with a page called ‘Buddy Search’.
  • Selling electronic products to reduce e-waste on the ‘E-Market’ page.
  • Creating your own ‘Profile’ with a biography and a profile picture.
  • Allowing users to follow and private message each other.
  • Uploading videos, photos, and voice notes to create a companionable environment.

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