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Tech Stack for the project
Inspiration
Imagine a product that lets you take notes while providing you with tailored quizzes and answers your doubts. This where UpNotes comes in. Our story began as we struggled to keep up with the demands of schoolwork. We noticed a recurring problem that every student faced - despite hours prioritizing note taking and studying, we often felt unprepared for quizzes and exams. For most of us, traditional study methods weren’t cutting it. We wanted something smarter, more efficient, and tailored to each student's needs. Our frustation, let to the birth of UpNotes - a solution that makes our dreams of having a 'smart studymate' come true.
What it does
UpNotes is an AI-powered learning companion designed to revolutionize the way students study. It allows students to take notes online in a properly formatted way. But it doesn’t stop there. UpNotes uses those notes to generate adaptive quizzes, targeting areas where the student needs the most practice. Additionally, it has a built-in Q&A feature that allows students to ask questions and receive accurate, detailed explanations instantly. With UpNotes, students can focus on learning, not just memorizing and effectively internalizing their notes. This is especially relevant to students with learning disabilities*.
How we built it
We started by assessing students' needs when it comes to note-taking in order to understand how we could automate and generate personalized quizezes. We utilized the Gemini Ai's NLP, in Python, model to interpret and summarize the complex information in the notes and integrated an adaptive learning based algorithm that generates quizzes tailored to the student's needs
The Q&A feature was another key component. We refined the use of Gemini Ai by querying with detailed prompts to understand the questions and provide detailed answers from the stand point of a teacher. Finally, putting it all together, we designed an intuitive user interface, coded with NextJS , ensuring that UpNotes was easy to use for students of all ages and learning styles.
Challenges we ran into
This development process was not without its challenges. One of the biggest hurdles was to find an AI NLP model that is capable of working with students. This included, not only being able to solve math problems, but also converse with students. We had to find a balance between performance and accessibility, eventually opting for Google's Gemini AI model.
Another challenge was ensuring that UpNotes' quizzes were truly adaptive and personalized. It took multiple iterations to fine-tune the algorithm so that it accurately targeted each student’s weaknesses without overwhelming them. We also faced difficulties in creating an interface that was both powerful and user-friendly, requiring constant testing and refinement.
Perhaps the most important challenge was integrating API's with markdown languages. Markdown is widely used for its simplicity and ease of formatting, making it a natural choice for displaying the notes and quizzes generated by UpNotes. However, combining markdown's lightweight syntax with the more dynamic and data-driven functionalities of APIs required a deep understanding of both systems and careful coordination. Each query response from the API had its own response format and data structure, requiring us to build custom parsers to translate the raw data into markdown code to make it both functional and visually appealing.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Despite the challenges, we’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved with UpNotes. Seeing our tool in action for the first time—taking notes, generating personalized quizzes, and answering questions—was a moment of triumph and relief. We’ve created a solution that not only saves students' time but also helps them learn more efficiently, in a way that works for them. The positive feedback from our peers and teachers has been immensely rewarding in the development of this project.
What we learned
Through this project, we’ve learned the importance of perseverance, collaboration, and user-centered design. We understood how crucial it is to understand the needs of our users and to iterate based on their feedback. We also gained a deep understanding of AI, machine learning, and the complexities of building a tool that balances functionality with accessibility. Most importantly, we learned that with dedication and teamwork, even the most ambitious ideas can become reality.
What's next for UpNotes AI
Our journey doesn’t end here. We have big plans for UpNotes' future. We’re working on expanding its capabilities, such as integrating voice commands, adding more languages, enhancing the AI’s ability to answer increasingly complex questions, and allowing users to digitalize handwritten notes. We also want to make UpNotes more widely available, reaching students around the world. Our ultimate goal is to transform the way students learn, making education more personalized, efficient, and accessible for everyone. The possibilities are endless, and we’re excited to see where UpNotes will go next.
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