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App wins most sustainable prize

December 4, 2024

The winning application at Girls Hoo Hack aims to reduce overconsumption

Mindy Zheng and Bridget Kim
UVA students Mindy Zheng and Bridget Kim received the first-place prize for “Most Sustainable Hack” at Girls Hoo Hack 2024 for their app, Pocket Home.

Designed by two UVA students, an application aiming to reduce unnecessary consumption was recognized for its sustainability efforts at the annual Girls Hoo Hack hackathon.

Hosted by Girls Who Code at the University of Virginia, Girls Hoo Hack is a gender-inclusive hackathon where students from the University spend 48 hours developing a software project in hopes of winning prizes in varying categories.

Pocket Home, developed by UVA students Mindy Zheng and Bridget Kim, aims to prevent unnecessary consumption by creating and organizing a household inventory. The application received a 500-dollar prize for “most sustainable hack” at the Girls Hoo Hack event on Oct. 20.

“For Pocket Home, the concept of sustainability was central from the start,” said Zheng. Inspired by the hackathon theme of “Life Hacks," and how they often purchased and lost track of items, Zheng and Kim came up with Pocket Home.

Pocket Home allows users to register and track their household items in an inventory system. It also includes an AI chatbot to offer helpful reminders or advice for managing inventory.

Director of Technology & Innovation Chris Smeds serves as co-chair of the University's Sustainable IT Working Group, which sponsored the prize for the most sustainable application. UVA student Surya Shanmugaselvam, as part of the working group, served as a judge for projects being considered for the sustainability category. Projects were judged on factors such as creativity, impact, technical difficulty and functionality.

To view all projects from the 2024 Girls Hoo Hack hackathon, visit the project gallery.


About the author

Afia Paracha
Communications assistant student worker
UVA Facilities Management
hcx2td@virginia.edu