Mimicoo | Devpost

Inspiration

Neurological disorders are not a common topic in everyday conversations. Being a first-time parent means worrying about countless things, which often leads to checkups for children’s developmental disorders being overlooked. Even when parents are aware of a child’s condition, many lack the financial resources to access proper help. Our strongest inspiration came from a personal experience. Our teammate Stephanie witnessed the struggles of a family friend’s daughter, Emily, who faced neurological challenges without adequate support. Through technology and social media, Stephanie discovered that this issue is widespread across many communities and is something that deserves awareness and action.

What it does

Our web app targets areas that most speech therapy platforms have yet to address. Mimicoo is a non-profit organization that aims to help underrepresented communities by connecting them with healthcare systems and supporting children’s learning development. Users begin by creating an account and customizing their child’s profile. Then, they provide a raw or live audio recording, which is analyzed by our model for a risk assessment. Based on the results, children may show potential signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Developmental Language Disorder, or hearing impairments.

To support families, Mimicoo offers speech therapy-based learning and progress tracking without requiring long-distance travel or costly medical visits. Instead of repetitive practice tests, we designed an engaging game system to appeal to young children. Every time they complete a challenge, they earn Capybara Coins that track their progress and motivate them to keep going. Each session also provides clear feedback and constructive assessment so that users can learn and improve continuously.

Additionally, Mimicoo connects parents with doctors nearby who can provide professional assistance. Our platform acts as an intermediary that saves families time and helps them find trusted medical professionals. The built-in child profile and progress report can be directly shared with doctors for easier collaboration.

We designed Mimicoo using a calming color palette and chose the capybara as our mascot to represent gentleness and comfort. The app is completely web-based, so users only need an internet connection and a device—no purchases or installations required.

How we built it

We built Mimicoo with a full-stack architecture combining audio processing, machine learning, and modern web tools. We created a baseline model using published datasets and infant speech samples, extracting features like pitch, formants, and intensity with Librosa and Praat-Parselmouth, then visualized them with Mediapipe. These were fed into the Gemini API for predictive analysis of potential speech disorders and autism risk.

Our backend, built with FastAPI, Uvicorn, and WebSockets, powered real-time communication and was containerized with Docker. The frontend, built with React, TypeScript, and TailwindCSS, lets parents upload recordings, view graphs, receive reports, and even download assessment results. We also added the ability to book appointments with speech therapists/doctors directly through the platform, closing the loop between early detection and professional support. Authentication was handled by Clerk, designs were created in Figma/Procreate, and we deployed with Vercel (frontend) and Render (backend). Finally, we registered a custom domain through GoDaddy’s Registry to give Mimicoo a professional and accessible online presence.

Challenges we ran into

Hackathons wouldn’t be complete without challenges, and for us, these moments became valuable learning experiences. Our first major setback was every programmer’s nightmare: losing code progress. After hours of work, our platform suddenly reverted to an earlier state, leaving us frustrated and pressed for time. Still, we persevered and rebuilt everything from scratch, learning the importance of persistence and backup strategies.

Our second major challenge came during deployment. We struggled with downloading and configuring WebSocket dependencies, which prevented us from running the app properly at first. These technical hurdles tested our patience but also strengthened our teamwork and problem-solving skills.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are incredibly proud of what we built. From the carefully structured backend to the thoughtfully designed frontend and UI, every part of Mimicoo was created through teamwork, discussion, and dedication. Knowing that we poured our hearts into something meaningful kept us motivated through every obstacle.

Beyond the product itself, we are most proud of the friendships we built along the way. The debates about new features, the late-night coding sessions, and the stress over the pitch presentation all brought us closer. What started as a hackathon became a journey of growth, creativity, and collaboration—an experience we’ll never forget.

What we learned

Through building Mimicoo, we discovered that project ideas don’t just stop at their initial form — they grow and evolve the more you explore them. Brainstorming often led us down unexpected paths, sparking new ideas and creative directions. We also learned that having fun is just as important as working hard; it keeps the energy alive and the team connected. Sometimes, chasing perfection can hold you back, what truly matters is taking that first step and building momentum. In the end, progress often comes from starting, experimenting, and improving along the way.

What's next for Mimicoo

Mimicoo doesn't just stop here. We hope to continue to help the community through the benefits it Mimicoo doesn’t stop here — this is only the beginning. As a non-profit initiative, we aim to continue supporting our community by making speech detection and early care more accessible to families in need. Alongside our all-access free plan, we plan to introduce advanced premium options to enhance user experience and sustainability.

To bring Mimicoo further into the healthcare sector, we aim to collaborate with doctors and clinics to help them track patients’ progress more efficiently and effectively. In the future, we plan to directly link Mimicoo with hospitals and medical centers to enable faster, more secure transportation of client profiles and results.

For revenue generation, we plan to explore licensing and ads, ensuring any monetization remains ethical and aligned with our mission of accessibility and care. Ultimately, our goal is to help healthcare professionals monitor speech development seamlessly while empowering families through early support and innovation.