Four talented students from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management are helping a national fashion retailer based in Kearney advance toward offering its guests a tailor-made online fashion stylist experience.
Buckle, which employs about 8,000 people with more than 440 stores in 42 states, approached the Raikes School’s Design Studio to build an online shopping tool that uses artificial intelligence to mimic the company’s highly personalized in-store shopping experience.
The Design Studio is a capstone course where student-led teams collaborate with businesses and nonprofits on year-long projects. The teams design and develop software solutions to real-world problems, gaining practical experience and strengthening their skills in software engineering and business development.
Buckle has sponsored five Design Studio projects with the Raikes School since 2017. It is one of 17 companies to sponsor 2024-25 capstone projects for Design Studio.
This tool represents the potential for future enhancements to Buckle’s online experience for guests so that they can more accurately find their next outfit.
Raikes School partnership
Brandon Hauff, vice president of information technology for Buckle, shared the importance of participating in the Design Studio over the years.
“Buckle’s collaboration with the Raikes School team gives us access to some of today’s brightest computer science and design minds who are looking to use technology to solve cutting edge problems,” he said. “We continue to participate in the Design Studio program each year because it is rewarding to contribute to the experiential learning journey of some of Nebraska’s best and brightest students, while getting the opportunity to expose these students to really interesting innovation in the retail space.”
Rob Nickolaus, director of the Raikes School Design Studio, said that form of partnership is a key ingredient in the success of the studio.
“The projects span diverse industries, technologies, skills and organization sizes," Nickolaus said. "This year, we have seen many projects pushing students beyond their comfort zone into a growth area as they take the lessons learned from their academics and apply them to the real world. We’ve also seen sponsors increase their knowledge by having the student teams sharing their expertise.”
A cohort of Buckle teammates attended the final release April 18 to experience the AI tool developed by the Raikes School students. Hauff said the shopping assistant will initially be used internally by Buckle teammates to learn more about the work and potential applications in Buckle’s ecosystem.
“We’re really excited about what AI and the Raikes school team are pioneering for Buckle, whose mission is to create the most enjoyable shopping experience possible," Hauff said. "This tool represents the potential for future enhancements to Buckle’s online experience for guests so that they can more accurately find their next outfit.”
The student team that worked with Buckle includes: Ealynn Hsu, project manager and a senior computer science and music major from Lincoln; Victoria Chin, development manager and a senior computer science major from Omaha; Radhika Damle, developer and a junior actuarial science and data science major from Rochester, Minnesota; and Katia Henrriquez, developer and a junior software engineering major from Omaha.
The team's work earned a 2024-25 Platinum Award, the Design Studio's top honor. Hsu also was presented a "Rockstar" award for her performance with the team.
Project enhances guest experience
Online retailers rely upon highly accurate inventory, including inventory descriptions, tagging and imagery, to ensure that guests can readily identify whether a particular item is suited for their intended need. Inventory tagging has quickly gained popularity for its versatility in enhancing descriptions and searchability for guests. The Raikes School team used Claude Sonnet, an AI model from Anthropic, to generate 2 million tags for 50,000 Buckle inventory items, enabling users to speak naturally to find apparel that meets their search parameters and applicable use cases.
“Our job was to bridge that natural language gap, so a guest who wants a specific outfit can describe it in a more casual way, rather than using specific words and filters,” Hsu said.
Chin said a search for job interview attire is a perfect example of that process.
"If you asked for ‘professional’ clothing on the Buckle website, it would return products that have that word in their name, and that’s not always the best contextual match,” Chin said. “Our project enables natural language search, so that a request for professional attire will return trousers and blazers and similar items to users.”
Team experiences lead to success
The Design Studio team formed a strong bond over the course of the project with their shared love of computer science.
Each described a slightly different path to the male-dominated field of computer science: Chin was inspired by a middle school teacher at Omaha’s Westside School District who encouraged girls to consider coding; Hsu said a Raikes School professor she met during a high school summer camp showed how she could use computer science to support her passion for music; math-lover Damle said she came to Nebraska for its outstanding actuarial science program but applied for the Raikes School to add technology to her tool belt; and Henrriquez said she decided as a high school senior to pursue the Peter Kiewit Foundation Engineering Academy for a degree in software engineering.
The creation of their all-female team occurred somewhat by chance. All four members sought the project because they were intrigued by using artificial intelligence to solve shopping challenges that all guests encounter, including finding ways to search in commonly used language and product curation. The team worked 12 to 15 hours a week on the project throughout the 2024-25 school year.
“This was a larger, more challenging type of project,” Henrriquez said. “The thing that really drew me to it was the connection between the team and the sponsor — and getting closer to something that you’d work on in the field.”
Chin said the problem presented by Buckle was something each member of the team had experienced while shopping online.
“Fashion fatigue,” Hsu said. “There’s just so many options out there, figuring out what you want is exhausting.”
For Damle, the project was a chance to expand the AI experience in a new way.
“AI has gone into other areas, such as finance and medicine, but not so much into fashion,” Damle said. “It was an interesting space, and it was also an AI-related project with some overall data tagging.”
Hauff said Buckle differs from most specialty clothing retailers due to its wide selection of merchandise and its balance of private and national branded styles. With near daily deliveries, the company’s merchandise strategy keeps inventory fresh and exciting but can pose difficulty to guests who are seeking to discover outfits to meet their individual needs.
“It has been exciting to work with the Design Studio team to address this challenge," Hauff said. "On behalf of Buckle, I want to sincerely thank the team and the Raikes School for their continued partnership and the impact they have had on our guest shopping experience."
Homegrown support
As a Nebraska company, founded and headquartered in Kearney, Buckle has long supported the University of Nebraska. Buckle has dedicated scholarships at the University of Nebraska at Kearney and UNL for students who are pursuing computer science and related degrees. Additionally, Buckle offers internships for NU students and frequently hires NU graduates.
The Buckle project and 20 other Design Studio projects, including four student-led startups, will be demonstrated during the Design Studio’s Annual Showcase from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. April 25 at the Nebraska Innovation Campus Conference Center, 2021 Transformation Drive in Lincoln.
