## Inspiration

At early development stage, we want to focus on creating something practical and cost-effective that every students in university would benefit from it. As university students ourselves, we spend 3-400 dollars on hardcopy textbooks at the beginning of each term, that is 6-800 dollars per year. Therefore, we decided to develop a textbook sharing platform that not only helps our users to search, buy and sell textbooks but more importantly suits their student budget.

Our app was inspired by the word of sharing, the concept of sharing has grown its popularity in the recent years. We benefit so much from sharing-economy. And we would also like to find a way which allows us to apply the idea of sharing to reduce the financial spending for all students.

## What it does

This app will have two main functions for university students, sharing and borrowing. For the sharing function, the app allows you to update the current status of the textbook the user want to share, and then the app will generate the virtual price of this textbook based on the user input information. Then once the student chooses to share, his/her textbook will be shared to someone else, and he/she will get the virtual currency which can be used to buy the desired textbook.
Secondly, the borrowing function allows an user to find their desired textbook, and the current status of that book. If that user decides to borrow this book, he/she will pay the virtual price that the app generates to the owner. Then the user and owner can decide to where to meet to get the textbook.

## How we built it

Eclipse IDE, Java FX API, Scene Builder and some open source tools to find pictures and edit them.

## Challenges we ran into

There are so many challenges we ran into, including technical and design challenges. As far as technical challenges are concerned, we wanted to accomplish a specific goal like smooth zooming a picture on the user interface, we had no idea about that, but after searching the oracle documentation, we finally found a way to solve it. For the design challenges, we spent a lot of time in making all the interfaces following the same style.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

We got a deeper understanding of Java back-end development. And we designed the entire user interface and it's animated transition.

## What we learned

JavaFX, SceneBuilder, time management skill and team work skill

## What's next for Sharing

We would like to complete the development of this software. Then we would like to write a
web version of this, and an IOS or Android app as well if time is allowed.
## Inspiration

The inspiration for creating EduCycler stemmed from an understanding of the financial challenges faced by university students. Textbooks are expensive and often unused after the semester, forever lying in some corner of a room. EduCycler was born out of a desire to empower students to alleviate this financial strain, facilitating a platform where they could easily buy and sell textbooks within their academic community.

## What it does

Our website provides an easy platform for students to sell and buy used textbooks. By allowing users to filter listings by university and course, EduCycler aims to make textbook trading a more efficient, affordable, and environmentally sustainable experience for college students.

## How we built it

EduCycler was created using React. We initially designed the whole website in Figma. This allowed us to optimize our website style, functionality, and layout. We then spent time creating our design in Figma. Throughout this process, GitHub was used for version control.

## Challenges we ran into

As beginners to React, we had a significant challenge in learning how to use the framework. We spent extra hours on tutorials, documentation, and practical exercises. We sought help from mentors, learned collaboratively, and persisted when hitting bugs. We had also planned to use Convex for our backend development. However, we lost a team member partway through the hackathon and had to reevaluate our plan. We overcame this by focusing on creating a working front-end site and implementing features modularly to ensure we had a working product at the end of the hackathon.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

One accomplishment we are proud of is our quick turnaround time when we realized our project would be able to be implemented as we originally intended. Our remaining team members efficiently communicated and got to work.

## What we learned

Through this dedication and commitment to learning, we successfully developed EduCycler, gaining valuable experience in React development along the way.

## What's next for EduCycler

We hope to continue working on this project after the hackathon. We intend to implement a backend database that allows users to create accounts and manage their listings and purchases. Adding an in-built payment system and seller-buyer chat are other primary goals we have. These would allow our website to cover the full textbook resale process, from adding lists to successfully purchasing and picking up the textbooks.
# 4Course: Revolutionizing Collaborative Learning 🏆

#### Inspiration

Empowering students to excel together and innovate in the realm of education.

#### What it does 🚀

4Course facilitates seamless collaboration among students, allowing them to share Google Docs links for class materials. Additionally, it offers a unique feature where students can collaborate on homework assignments for free. Using cutting-edge technology like Flow, ownership of projects can be transferred among classmates securely. Blockchain technology ensures the integrity of shared homework, preventing plagiarism by securing ownership.

#### How we built it 💻

Utilizing Next.js for the frontend, Firebase for messaging, Cadence for smart contracts, and JavaScript for functionality. We leveraged AWS EC2 for initial messaging but transitioned to Firebase for scalability and efficiency.

#### Challenges we ran into 🛠️

Integrating various technologies seamlessly, ensuring robust security measures, and optimizing performance were key challenges we encountered.

#### Accomplishments that we're proud of

Creating a platform that fosters collaboration, innovation, and academic integrity. Implementing cutting-edge technologies to deliver a user-friendly and secure experience.

#### What we learned

We gained valuable insights into integrating blockchain for security, optimizing frontend performance with Next.js, and effectively managing collaborative projects in a digital environment.

#### What's next for 4School 📈

Continued enhancements to user experience, integration of additional collaboration tools, expansion of platform features, and partnerships with educational institutions to promote collaborative learning on a larger scale.