Rooted

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Inspiration

We wanted to build a hack that would allow people to come together for the betterment of everyone. Instead of focusing solely on the cleaning and improvement of the environment around us, we wanted to create something that would allow people to form bonds and stay connected after each event.

What it does

Rooted allows users to create and attend events that interest them within the space of environmental conservation and activism. By having a community element, users are more likely to build lasting connections with other likeminded individuals. We also have our own built-in assistant, Grow Neighbor, which can provide guidance and recommendations on how to get involved.

How we built it

We built Rooted with the assistance of Codex. Our initial planning phase was arguably the most important, as we worked out what problem we were looking to address and slowly worked our way backwards from there. We took elements that we liked from other existing apps to create Rooted as a community driven environment improvement app.

Challenges we ran into

The main challenge we had to address during our hack was scope creep. We started out with a broad idea of what all we wanted to implement within the product but quickly realized that the number of features we wanted to implement would not fit the given timeline. We then had to prioritize which features would be most important for a proof of concept and worked to implement those.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are really proud that we got the implementation of Gemini within our product as a tool to make recommendations to users. We are also really happy that we were able to successfully incorporate specific account and profile features within the product.

What we learned

We learned about the process of developing a product from start to finish. Starting from the initial discovery stages, to the requirements and scoping the project, and leading that into design and development was a really unique experience within the accelerated timeline. As first time hackers, we really got a taste for the main stages of product development and will be able to transfer these skills and experiences as we grow within the field.

What's next for Rooted

We would love to make Rooted an international platform to allow for the unification of communities around the world for a common goal of environmental improvement. Our members come from diverse backgrounds, with roots in countries such as Eritrea, Mexico, the Philippines, and India. We would love to see Rooted take hold within the communities in our countries to allow more people to come together and take part in events like composting, trash pickups and reforestation.