Jason Wheeler didn’t return to Cal Poly’s Kennedy Library to relive his student days but to reimagine its transformation as a catalyst for environmental change. A business alumnus from the class of 2000, he immediately recognized the potential of the library’s discarded flooring, destined for the landfill but full of new possibility.
Inspired, he founded JackRabbit Salvage Marketplace, a startup designed to connect salvaged construction materials with people ready to give them a second life. “I saw materials going to waste as costs soared,” Wheeler said. “We needed a system to repurpose valuable resources, not discard them.”
JackRabbit’s first transaction redirected 10 tons of reclaimed flooring to a local general contractor, showcasing how technology can turn waste into opportunity.
This pilot venture also served as the launchpad for Cal Poly’s newly introduced computer science capstone sequence. Over fall and winter quarters, seven students partnered with Wheeler, under the guidance of faculty member BJ Klingenberg, to upgrade the site in real time — revamping database design and administrative dashboards, and enhancing interactive maps and user-login features to make it more engaging and intuitive.
Along the way, the project shifted how students thought about sustainability in their own lives. Gannon Bardasian chuckled that he now even considers saving the head of a lettuce instead of tossing it. Meanwhile, Michelle Chi gathers her empty soda cans in a bag, ready to recycle or sell back, so nothing useful slips through her fingers.
Chi joined the capstone because it felt practical and meaningful. “I liked the idea of jumping into an existing project. The materials from the library could be reused elsewhere around town,” she explained. “It’s a community-based approach to conservation.”
To enhance user engagement, Chi and her teammates focused on improving the site’s visual and interactive elements, creating dropdown menus and detailed map views. “The idea was to visually emphasize the connections between the material’s origins and their new destinations,” Chi said. Wheeler called this digital connection the site’s “connective tissue,” making the concept of reuse more compelling and tangible.
Supriya Mandava and Ivan Kaur were instrumental in developing a robust administrative dashboard integrated into the site’s database. “The project offered me valuable full-stack development experience,” Mandava said, reflecting on the technical growth she experienced. “We documented everything carefully so that future teams could pick up exactly where we left off.”
Wheeler sees JackRabbit not as a finished product, but as a living project that grows with each new team. “These students didn’t just hand off code; they left a foundation for the next group to build on,” he said. “That kind of continuity mirrors what they’ll experience in the real world.”
Wheeler’s goal from the start was to simplify reuse by connecting buyers and sellers directly — a jump-on-it mindset that inspired the name JackRabbit. He aimed to cut out the delays, storage and hauling that drive up costs and often send usable materials to waste. That hands-on approach shaped the project early on, from his work during the removal of flooring at Kennedy Library, where he donned a hard hat to oversee the process, to the collaboration he built with Klingenberg.
As both a faculty member and industry consultant with Cal Poly’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Small Business Development Center, Klingenberg helped ground JackRabbit in both startup thinking and real-world technical execution.
“With platforms like this, reuse becomes easy and intuitive,” Klingenberg said. “Once it gains momentum, everyone from contractors to local artists can find what they need and keep valuable materials in circulation.”
Now, JackRabbit is gaining that momentum. The team plans to introduce a new user group — “stores” — allowing organizations like Habitat for Humanity to showcase available materials more effectively. It’s part of a broader vision to incentivize community participation in sustainability by highlighting real-world success stories.
For the students involved, JackRabbit was more than just a capstone. It became a firsthand lesson in how technology can drive lasting change — one that future student teams will continue to shape. As Chi puts it, “There’s so much potential in what people usually discard. Now we’re making sure that potential isn’t wasted.”
To learn more or see where salvaged materials are finding new life, visit jackrabt.com.
By Emily Slater
