Athena Hack 2021 brought together more than 300 coders and 61 submissions.
Athena Hack 2021 is a hackathon for women and non-binary people and the theme for the hackathon was to present ideas for a Circular Economy. The Department of Computing MEng students Anindita Ghosh, Radhika Patel, and Rasika Navarange received a first-place prize and the Best University Team prize.
Their entry is called Stitch and their aim is to reduce the amount of waste in fast fashion by encouraging people to mend damaged clothes rather than throwing them away. The app connects users to local tailors and seamsters; like Deliveroo but for tailoring.
The inspiration for Stitch comes from a cross between Uber, Instagram and the fashion world. The aim is to connect people to their local 'tailors', who can meet their clothing repair and upscaling needs, and ultimately reduce the amount of waste whilst supporting the popular desire to remain 'on trend'. Target tailors include homemakers who know how to sew, aunties who are already tailoring but only marketing by word-of-mouth and penniless fashion students - they cater for all.
Watch their presentation about the app below.
The way the app works is that a user can search for the service they require such as repairing, adjusting or upscaling their clothes to the latest trends and they will be shown nearby tailors on offer to them. The user can then confirm their request by logging into the app and messaging the tailor who will approve/deny the request. The user can also browse tailor profiles in their main feed (similar to Instagram) to see current new trends and filter based on different interests.
Find out how they built it, the challenges they ran into and what’s next for Stitch in their Devpost entry.
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Reporter
Mr Ahmed Idle
Department of Computing
