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Student Projects – Handy

Made by Team C3PO

Find local, Fix Fast

We noticed the difficulty that people have finding reliable handy people that can get a simple job done. There must be loads of people with the skills and some time on their hands that would like to help out and earn a bit on the side. How about we create a way to connect the two? That’s how Handy was born.

The Team

Paul McKinley

Paul McKinley

I’ve spent my career in tech—from support and networking,

consulting and product management. I’ve always been drawn to the bigger picture: leading teams, shaping vision, and making sure everything stays on track. But after years of working closely with engineers, I felt the pull to learn how to build things myself. Completing a 13-week Northcoders bootcamp gave me that foundation. While I still shine most in leadership and strategy, I now have an even deeper understanding of the development process and now have the confidence to bring personal projects to life. I’m always open to connecting with forward-thinking startups—let’s build something great together.

Paul Starr

Paul Starr

In 2020, whilst studying my psychology masters degree, I

became intrigued by the work of some psychology graduate students who were building AI neural nets using Python. This introduced me to the philosophical and scientific intersection of cognitive psychology and computer science, and piqued my interest in programming. Having since worked in the field of mental health, I decided in 2025 to pivot towards a career in computer programming. My starting point has been the Northcoders Bootcamp, which has taught me – in three months – how to build a full-stack web application! Its been great fun collaborating with my colleagues throughout the course on so many sprints and projects. I’ve learned so much so fast, and can’t wait to learn more languages (Python, I’m looking at you).

Joe Beaumont

Joe Beaumont

After seven years as an analytical scientist in the medical

device industry, I have decided to pursue a new career in software development. I have a passion for analysis and problem-solving and want to develop these skills in a more dynamic, creative environment. Following graduation from the 13 week Software Design in JavaScript Bootcamp I plan to further my skills with personal projects as I seek to begin my new career as a developer. https://github.com/Joe-Beaumont

Joy Dutta

Joy Dutta

I’m looking to transition into a software developer role,

building on hands-on intensive training from Northcoders and Computer Science and Electrical Engineering education. My four years experience in agile testing have given me a practical understanding of SDLC and quality, showing me how crucial collaboration and efficient workflows are. I’m particularly passionate about turning complex ideas into clean, functional code. I’m always eager to learn new technologies and approaches, excited by the challenge of solving problems and building innovative solutions. I’m ready to contribute to a team, develop my skills further, and make areal impact on projects. GitHub : https://github.com/Jaidutta LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joy-dutta-jd/

Tech Stack

Tech Stack for this group

We used Javascript, React Native, Expo, Postgres, PostGis, We chose React Native to give us cross-platform app capabilities and access to the device camera. Expo was used for rapid testing without the need to recompile for each platform. On the backend we used PostGis extension for Postgres as it allowed us to do proximity based searches fast from within the database itself.

Challenges Faced

Our biggest challenges, given only six days for coding, were enabling the device camera, ensuring accurate geospatial queries, and acquiring a suitable test dataset.