"Decoding the past to shape the future."
DecodeTech is an AI-powered web platform that explores how historical technologies and ideas have shaped our modern world — and predicts how they’ll evolve in the future.
Built for the Code the Past Hackathon 2025, DecodeTech combines historical data from Wikipedia with future insights from Google Gemini AI to inspire innovation and learning.
Every great innovation has roots in history.
DecodeTech bridges the gap between past discoveries and future technologies by allowing users to:
- Search for any technology or historical concept.
- Instantly get its summary, image, and source from Wikipedia.
- Generate an AI-driven Future Insight predicting its next 10 years.
- Discover Modern Applications and real-world problem-solving use cases.
- View a concise Timeline of key milestones.
- Explore Related Technologies that connect history and future innovation.
The 2025–2026 FIRST Tech Challenge theme — "DECODE" — inspired us to explore how we can decode historical innovations to build the technologies of tomorrow.
DecodeTech transforms this idea into an interactive platform that teaches, inspires, and connects technology across time.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| 🔍 Search & Fetch | Retrieves historical data (summary, image, and link) from Wikipedia. |
| 🤖 AI Future Insight | Uses Google Gemini API to generate a 10-year forecast for the searched technology. |
| 🧩 Modern Application Section | Highlights real-world use cases and solutions inspired by the technology. |
| 🕰️ Timeline Generation | Displays a concise historical timeline of key milestones. |
| 🔗 Related Technologies | Lists 3–5 related concepts that connect past and future innovation. |
| 💾 Database Integration | Saves all results (MySQL) for quick re-access and analysis. |
| 📱 Responsive Frontend | Simple, fast UI for students, researchers, and innovators. |
Frontend:
- HTML, CSS, JavaScript (Vanilla)
Backend:
- Node.js + Express.js
- MySQL (for data storage)
APIs Used:
- Wikipedia REST API
- Google Gemini API (AI text generation)
Example prompts used to generate different sections:
Future Insight:
Predict the future of ${tech} in the next 10 years. Mention possible innovations, social and environmental impact, and connect it to lessons from history. Be concise but insightful.
Modern Applications:
Predict the modern applications and real-world impact of ${tech}. Be concise, and focus on practical problem-solving and improvements in technology, security, efficiency, or accessibility.
Timeline:
'Create a concise historical timeline of ${tech}. Include 5–8 major milestones with years and key events. Example format:
- 1943: The first concept of ${tech} emerged with XYZ.
- 2010: ${tech} became mainstream due to ABC.`
Related Technologies: 'List 3-5 related technologies, concepts, or historical inspirations for ${tech} that can guide future innovation. Give them as a simple comma-separated list.'
git clone https://github.com/rutujayadav72/DecodeTech.git
cd DecodeTech
npm intall
MYSQL_HOST=your host
MYSQL_USER= your username
MYSQL_PASSWORD=Your password
MYSQL_DB=decodetech
GEMINI_API_KEY=your api key
PORT=your port
CREATE TABLE innovations (
id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
title VARCHAR(255),
description TEXT,
image_url TEXT,
source_url TEXT,
future_insight TEXT,
modern_application TEXT,
timeline TEXT,
related_tech TEXT,
category VARCHAR(255),
year INT,
created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);
npm start
