Recently I participated in a buildathon/hackathon for an organization called Baddies in Tech, through a hackathon hosting online platform called Devpost. Baddies in Tech is an organization founded by Allie Joy Tsahey for the purpose of “ creating safe spaces for women of color in tech to belong”. The organization was suggested to me on LinkedIn, and I soon saw that they were advertising an event that I thought would be a good way of challenging myself for a viable cause, as I have been looking to be part of more meaningful projects where tech is leveraged to solve an issue or act as equalizer for those with limited access to beneficial resources. This year’s Buildathon focused on Women’s Rights and creating a technical product that can solve pressing issues that women face in this country like proper healthcare, domestic abuse, and trafficking, using the following technologies: AI, 5G, and Blockchain. My team and I decided that AI would be the tech we used, and we decided to focus on creating an app that will equip women with a cohesive space to manage their reproductive health. 

Due to some of our own experiences with health issues affecting some of our reproductive organs, we thought our experiences and facts from peer reviewed health studies could inform us on what features this app should have. Our team had a project manager who helped organize the project and manage our timeline, a designer to create a mockup and prototype of the app, a backend developer who structured and built the backend of our app using Kotlin, a frontend developer who structured and built the frontend using TypeScript and React Native (me), and a marketer who planned and detailed the marketing strategy we would use to promote the app.

Our app was called Balance. Here is a link to more information about it on Devpost: Balanced App.

Essentially, the app aimed to help women take control of, monitor, and inform themselves about their reproductive health, especially menstruation. It had a calendar to add appointments to or keep track of one’s menstrual cycle, food, sleep, and exercise logs, a library of articles, and an AI chatbot trained specifically to give advice related to women’s reproductive healthcare. We only had two weeks, but what we were able to accomplish within that time frame was beyond all of our expectations. 

In my experience, I have never used React Native or have done any type of mobile development, and my experience with TypeScript was nascent. Thankfully, Codecademy had a Learn React Native course that saved me. It taught me the essentials of starting and building with React Native, and given my previous experience with React, it didn’t take me too long to catch on. I was shocked to go on to create an app that not only had a calendar, but a chat bot! We were given some credits to work with by Baddies in Tech so that we could utilize the OpenAI API. I was so intimidated but I was determined. After watching some videos, reading docs, and the responses of other developers after searching for the error I was having (I tried asking ChatGPT about its own API and it was no help), the chatbot was able to respond to every question I typed and asked it. We demonstrated this in the screen recording made of the app’s features. 

It was a fun, overwhelming, challenging, and exciting project. I met, worked with, and connected with great people, especially the women I teamed up with. Although we didn’t win any prize, we got great feedback and felt really proud of ourselves for what we accomplished in such a short period of time. That was my first hackathon! I’m telling you, if you asked me last year if I would be doing any semblance of a hackathon this year I would’ve scoffed and told you no. Nevertheless, I’m looking to challenge myself this year and deepen my skills and expertise as a developer/engineer. It’s been stressful and frustrating at times, but fulfilling and exciting. I’m truly in awe of the information out there and what I and others can build with it. I’d love to do another hackathon in the future, but not any time too soon; I just want to enjoy the feeling of completing my first one for a while longer.