App that acts as a 'virtual wardrobe' wins first prize for St John’s student and team

Joseph Mambwe and his team have won first prize in the annual Appathon competition with the SmartWear mobile phone app which allows users to try on virtual clothes and create an online wardrobe.

SmartWear lets users try on clothes virtually while shopping in-store by scanning product barcodes. Retailers add their clothing to the SmartWear database, and users can see if the item suits them without having to head into the changing rooms.

Virtual clothing is displayed on a photograph of the user, allowing them to swipe through different clothing combinations according to brand, colour and garment type. Users can also share their outfits on social media.

This innovative app was developed by fourth year Manufacturing Engineering undergraduate Joseph Mambwe and his team. They were awarded first prize in the Appathon, a national competition organised by Founders4Schools which inspires entrepreneurship and innovation in young people through smartphone app creation. SmartWear was declared the winner of the competition at a reception held at the House of Commons, with the grand prize being a tour around Silicon Valley in California.

Students from Notre Dame High School in Inverclyde came up with the original concept, which they named SmartWardrobe, and they joined forces with the Cambridge University team – comprising Department of Engineering students Benjamin Moss and Evgeny Roskach, Institute of Manufacturing graduate Patrick Siu, and Joseph Mambwe – who developed the idea further and turned it into the functional prototype app SmartWear.

Apps were judged against specific criteria including impact, scalability, virality, originality and demonstrability. SmartWear competed against apps such as Supa Calc, a calculator which tells you how to work a sum out as well as giving the answer, Waterworks, which uses GPS to work out where water is safe to drink, and History Hunter, a game in which the user competes against friends to take over the world using historical knowledge. The SmartWear team beat over 100 other school and university students to win the grand prize, a trip to Silicon Valley in California to meet with technology companies such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Paypal.

Joseph Mambwe taught himself to code during the summer after his first year at Cambridge, and has been creating mobile apps ever since. He jumped at the chance to compete in the Appathon when the opportunity came along.

“I had a great team with me who worked tirelessly in the final hours to pull it together and secure us the win,” Joseph said. “Winning the competition feels great. I love creating things, and when the things you create receive this kind of accolade and recognition there’s no other feeling like it.”

Joseph and the Cambridge team will be heading to California’s Silicon Valley later this summer. “Going to Silicon Valley has been a dream of mine for a long time,” Joseph said, “and being hosted by the greatest technology companies in the world will make it nothing short of an awe-inspiring experience.”

To read more about the Appathon and the Cambridge team’s win, visit the Founders4Schools blog