(Black PR Wire) The fact that 400 million metric tons of plastic waste are produced every year indicates the world has a waste problem. On a mission to reduce the volume and demand for material that creates the biggest waste footprint, an innovative team from Memphis and Atlanta developed the solution, SmartCycle, in an effort to inform the next generation about recycling to ensure everyone recycles in the future.

Carter (10), Faith (12), Hannah (11), Kennedi (16), and Parker (8) of team SmartCycle were the 2022 Call for Code for Black Girls CODE Grand Prize Winners. They built a web site that informs kids about the importance of recycling and inspires them to make a positive impact on the world. They used Watson Assistant to create a chatbot that can interact with users and inform them on environmental facts. 

Not far behind were the second prize team, The Black Queens with the project Trees911, a database that calculates how many trees are being cut down and how many trees need to be replanted; and third prize team Let’s Roll Houston, with the project Turtle Roomba, a solution to address plastic waste in the ocean to protect the turtles.

Now in its second year, the Call for Code: Black Girls Code Challenge gathers IBMers and Black Girls CODE Tech Divas to create practical, effective, and quality applications based on IBM technologies that can have an immediate and lasting impact the problem around the topic of Sustainability. The Challenge required the Tech Divas to submit at least 20 lines of code (Project Trees911 produced over 200 lines of code!), a videotaped presentation and a 250- word description of their code-based solution. The hackathon weekend was designed to promote learning, push them out of their comfort zones and tap into their creativity. Prizes included gift cards, IBM and Call for Code swag, an opportunity to pitch their product to an IBMExecutive panel and more.

An event of this magnitude was pulled off thanks to all the mentors, volunteers, judges, and program core team. Success can be measured by the words of Carter of Team SmartCycle, as this experience “changed my perspective on [hackathons] and I think I want to do it again!”

Learn more about Black Girls CODE at wearebgc.org.