## Inspiration

After moving to several new locations over this past year, I realized it's difficult to meet new people and make friends. The only existing solutions expect you to text strangers like how you would with your close friends. Upon discussing with the team, we found we shared this pain point and decided to set up plate-dates to help form genuine connections.

## What it does

plate-date is an app that connects people through food. It is our modern day take on the Olive Theory from How I Met Your Mother, finding users' perfect match based on their tastes. Through swiping through 10 different food choices Tinder-style, they will be matched with someone that has the perfect balance of similar, yet complementarity different tastes to go on a plate-date on a location based on their tastes.

## How we built it

Frontend: Typescript, React, Chakra-UI
Backend: Typescript, Express, Prisma, PostgreSQL, Docker

## Challenges we ran into

We wanted to use different new database and API systems since we met so many cool companies. However, it was difficult to not only choose one to use, but also onboard quickly. As a result, we spent a lot of time pivoting from software to software in the beginning, severely cutting down on hacking time.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

We experimented with many new products and technologies, challenging the team to learn something new. We also think our idea is pretty cool and something we would all use.

## What we learned

How to use Express with Typescript, how to spin up a docker database, how to pivot ideas.

## What's next for plate-date

We hope to launch it to university students at our home university, the University of Waterloo.
## Inspiration

In one of my most stressful semesters, I suddenly realized how long it has been since I last made a new friend. I resolved to join more clubs and events the following semester but I simply didn't have time and energy to widen my social circle with the stress and fatigue. Looking down at my lunch from food truck, I realized - wouldn't it be nice to take the lunch hour to have lunch with someone random in Penn and get to know him/her in a casual conversation?

## Why Lunch.ours

* Time-effective and no-fuss way to step out of social circle.  Easily make new connections for friendship, dating, networking.
* Offline quality conversations over lunch.  Not just texts, not just acquaintances.
* As and when you want a lunch buddy.
* Serendipity and surprise.

## What it does

Lunch.ours matches members of a school community (students, faculty, staff) up for surprise blind lunches with one another. Users can choose to join an existing lunch or post a new lunch with date, time and their tagline. Nothing else about the lunch buddy is revealed.

## How I built it

## Challenges I ran into

## Accomplishments that I'm proud of

* Working prototype: Lunch.ours has a [working prototype](https://lunchours.com) which includes a landing page, sign-up form, scripts for matching and sending automated personalized notification emails.
* Substantial real world concept testing: With the prototype, we have matched more than 160 students and faculty at Penn and Columbia over the last few months. We have received substantial and overwhelmingly positive feedback, as well as specific user pain points that we want to target in solving.
* Nice mockup: Mockup can be viewed [here](https://www.figma.com/proto/mdQTqOwlZOyZlI8u4NrAZm/Lunch.ours?node-id=12%3A8&scaling=min-zoom).
* Developed frontend of progressive web app

## What I learned

Before the hack, building the full-stack app at one go has been a significant challenge that stalled us. Jorge (mentor and judge) affirmed our UI design and reminded us that we should start with the frontend, before building the backend and the database. With this, we quickly embarked on frontend development. Through this hack, we developed a basic knowledge of the MERN stack and how to create components in react. We also experimented in designing with css and app storying boarding with figma.

We also learnt that presentation, pitch and sharing of our vision is super important in any hackathon. And we are excited to share our story and vision with everyone tomorrow.

## What's next for Lunch.ours

This hackthon has pushed us forward in completing the mockup, planning of features and data structures and frontend development. We will then work on the backend and database integration and adding the PWA features.
## Inspiration Behind Tangle ⚛️

The idea for Tangle emerged from a recognition that traditional networking methods, such as LinkedIn profiles, have remained static, even as large in-person events like Hack the North make a strong comeback. We saw an opportunity to reimagine how people connect by creating a more dynamic and visual way of representing relationships formed at events. Tangle aims to bridge the gap by providing an interactive web app that helps participants remember, revisit, and reinforce connections made during events, ensuring those relationships don’t just fade into the background.🤝

## How We Built Tangle 🛠️

Tangle is a web app powered by React for the front end and Convex for the back end, with the entire platform hosted on Vercel. We used a GoDaddy domain to make Tangle easily accessible to all users.🌐

Our backend, built with Convex, integrates a vector embedding search powered by Cohere. This allows us to offer advanced search functionality that helps users locate people they’ve met based on attributes and interactions.

On the front end, we designed a simple yet intuitive user interface in React, focusing on ease of navigation. The landing page introduces users to Tangle, while the home page allows them to search for individuals or features related to people they've met at the event. The query is sent to the backend, where it’s processed, and the results are returned in real-time.⚡️

## Challenges We Overcame Building Tangle 🚧

**Design Challenges 🎨**
One of our main challenges was creating a platform that caters to different event attendees—hackers, recruiters, and speakers—all of whom have different goals. Designing Tangle to meet the needs of all these groups while maintaining a cohesive user experience required careful planning and iteration.

**Vector Embeddings 🧠**
A technical challenge was mastering the use of vector embeddings. These embeddings were critical for enabling intelligent search functions within Tangle. We invested considerable time in optimizing the embedding process to accurately capture the nuanced relationships between event attendees.

**Personal Challenges 💪**
Balancing external commitments and the time pressure of the hackathon was no easy feat. At one point, we experienced challenges leading to a demotivating lull 10 hours prior to submissions, but we pushed through as a team in the final hours to finish strong.

## Accomplishments We Celebrate at Tangle 🎉

* Successfully integrating Cohere’s vector embeddings for advanced semantic search within our app.
* Mastering and utilizing Convex to build a robust and efficient backend.
* Designing a user-friendly interface.
* Overcoming personal time management challenges to deliver a working, innovative platform within the hackathon’s time constraints.

## Lessons Learned from Tangle's Journey 📚

**The Importance of Planning 📝**
One of the key takeaways from building Tangle was the necessity of meticulous planning, especially regarding user flow and system architecture. Diving straight into coding without first understanding how users would interact with our app resulted in some avoidable setbacks and rework. We learned that investing time upfront in planning leads to a more streamlined and efficient development process.

**Simplifying Systems 🧩**
We initially overcomplicated parts of our application, which led to inefficiencies. Simplifying and focusing on the core functionalities of Tangle allowed us to optimize the system and deliver a better user experience.