Inspiration
As college students, we often find ourselves with items we no longer need—textbooks from last semester, dorm décor that’s out of style, or electronics gathering dust. Despite being valuable for someone else, these items often end up discarded. Meanwhile, other students might be looking to save money by finding gently used items. We envisioned UniTrade to bridge these gaps and foster a safer, sustainable campus marketplace.
What it does
UniTrade is an exclusive campus marketplace that requires a valid student email for sign-up, fostering a safer trading environment. Students can post items to trade or give away, browse listings, and use in-app messaging (a future feature) to finalize deals—all while reducing waste by giving unwanted items a new home.
How we built it
We split the responsibilities evenly among our four-person team, with two members handling the front-end and two handling the back-end. On the front-end, we focused on building dynamic and engaging user interfaces using React Native. Meanwhile, the back-end team integrated our app with a Firebase database to support user authentication and post creation. Additionally we used Figma for UI design and GitHub for seamless version control and collaboration.
Challenges we ran into
While all of us have a strong foundation in programming, building an app was new territory for our team. Although most of us had web development experience, this was our first project using React Native and Firebase, which led to a steep learning curve. We spent almost as much time on forums as we did coding, but despite encountering countless challenges along the way, we’re incredibly proud of the final product and excited to share it with the world.
Accomplishments that were proud of
We’re proud of learning new libraries and frameworks in such a short period of time, and ultimately providing a secure system where users can confidently trade with others from the same academic community. Implementing a giveaway option also addressed waste reduction directly, allowing unwanted items to find new homes without going to a landfill.
What's next for UniTrade
We plan to introduce direct messaging and other social media-inspired features within our mobile apps, enhancing real-time communication and community engagement. Future updates will also focus on broader campus expansion to create an even more extensive trading network.
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