PennApps

This past weekend, I had the privilege of directing PennApps XXV with Lina Chihoub. It was an unforgettable experience, as we successfully hosted a 36-hour hackathon at Penn’s Engineering Quad, welcoming around 500 talented high school and college students from across the U.S. and beyond. Seeing our months of hard work come to life was truly rewarding. From organizing logistics to ensuring that participants had all the resources they needed, it was amazing to witness everything come together. What inspired me most was the creativity and passion of the participants, and it was truly a joy to watch everyone bring their ideas to life. Being able to provide a space for collaboration and innovation is what makes this event so special. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the support of an incredible organizing team. I want to give a shoutout to our exec members, Zihao Zhou, Melody Cheng, August Fu, Caroline Chen, Joseph Dattilo, Zhiqi (Millie) Gu, Rachel Lin, Jacqueline Li as well as our friends at Major League Hacking—Maria Dunning and Ryan Lahlou—for their hard work and dedication. Your contributions were invaluable. A huge thank you to our mentors, judges, and sponsors for their support and for helping to make PennApps XXV such a success. Special thanks to our sponsors: The D. E. Shaw Group, Susquehanna International Group, Bloomberg, Cerebras Systems, Stevens Capital Management LP, Tune AI, Jane Street, Perpay Inc., Capital One, Telora, Roboflow—your partnership and resources were key in enabling our participants to push the boundaries of technology and innovation. Lastly, to all the hackers who joined us from universities across the globe—it was an absolute pleasure to meet you! I hope you found the experience as rewarding and enjoyable as I did, and I look forward to seeing the impact your projects will have.

?? Unlocking the Unknown Unknowns in Education! ???? ?? Introducing HiveMind: An AI-powered learning revolution that doesn't just teach you what you ask – it reveals the crucial knowledge gaps you never knew existed! After 36 intense hours of innovating and coding, I'm thrilled to announce that our team won the Best Next-Gen LLM-Powered Application award, sponsored by Tune AI, at University of Pennsylvania's hackathon PennApps! ?? Ever wondered how much you're missing in your studies? What if there was a way to discover and learn the things you didn't even know you didn't know? Well, we've cracked it! HiveMind, is a learning platform designed to revolutionize how students engage with course material. In a world where quality educational resources can be hit-or-miss, we've created a solution that utilizes the power of collective intelligence?to create smarter, more effective lessons for Everyone. ?? Here's why Hivemind is a game-changer: ? Evolves with every student interaction, getting smarter by the minute ? Uncovers hidden connections in your course material ? Transforms passive learning into an active, community-driven experience A massive thank you to my incredible team (Neel Shettigar, Yejun Park, Yoon Ho Jeong) for their innovative spirit and tireless effort! Huge shoutout to the organizers of PennApps and special thanks to Yash Bonde & Naman Maheshwari for making this experience possible. ?? This hackathon was more than just a competition – it was a journey into the future of education. We're not just learning; we're redefining how learning happens! official launch coming soon. ?? Check out Hivemind demo and let me know what you think! https://lnkd.in/gJ_WmtUt #Hackathon #Upenn #Pennapps #AI #Innovation #EdTech #TuneAI #Hivemind #learning

Absolutely honored to be part of the HiveMind team that won the Best Next-Gen LLM-Powered Application award at PennApps! ?? Collaborating with my friends was an incredible experience, and I'm proud of what we've achieved together. HiveMind's ability to uncover hidden knowledge gaps and personalize the learning journey is revolutionizing EdTech by transforming solo learning into a collective journey. ?? Excited to continue pushing the boundaries of education and seeing the positive impact HiveMind will have on students everywhere. A big thank you to Tune AI and the PennApps organizers for this amazing opportunity!

This past weekend, my teammates Dhruvi Kadhiwala, Sahra Mohamad, Jet Wu, and I competed at PennApps, the University of Pennsylvania's annual hackathon, and managed to win 1st place in the Cerebras Systems Super Fast AI track! We built Electra, a tool for simulating the change of voter dispositions when prompted with a historical or hypothetical scenario, using real data to power our LLM network which we built from scratch (more technical details are on the devpost linked at the bottom if you're interested!). My teammates have already made some great posts celebrating our accomplishment and thanking the wonderful PennApps team, and Cerebras Systems who enabled us to make this project scalable with their incredibly fast AI inference. In addition to that, I wanted to add a special thanks to Behnam Reyhani who was very helpful in guiding us to focus our project into a tailored product that helped solve a real problem. Thanks Ben! https://lnkd.in/gHkwa-MQ

I'm thrilled to share that this past weekend, my team and I won the Best DEI Hack sponsored by Fidelity Investments at PennApps with our project, Sera! Sera is a financial tracking app that provides personalized financial guidance, helping users manage their finances more effectively. With features like OCR for expense tracking and AI-driven insights, we aim to empower individuals to make informed financial decisions. A huge shout-out to my amazing teammates — Pranav R., Taimur Shaikh, and Yonatan Tussa — for their dedication, creativity, and hard work throughout the hackathon. This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without you! We actually had to leave early to catch a train, so we found out we won while on the way back to Maryland. That’s also why there isn’t a group photo to commemorate the moment. I would also like to extend a special thank you to Fidelity Investments for sponsoring the track and to the organizers of PennApps for providing such an incredible platform to innovate and showcase our ideas. #financialtech #hackathon #DEI

Thrilled to announce that our team won the ???????? ???????????????????? ???????? at PennApps ?????? at University of Pennsylvania! ?? We created ??????????????????—a blockchain-based solution that reduces international wire transfer times from 1-5 business days to just a few minutes. As international students, we've all experienced the frustration of slow and costly tuition payments due to intermediary banks. ?????????????????? eliminates these intermediaries by creating direct connections between foreign banks, leveraging blockchain technology and AI-powered fraud detection. A huge shoutout to my amazing teammates: Chirag Seth, Vitthal Agarwal, and Hanson Siu. Together, we navigated new technologies like blockchain and AI models, integrated them seamlessly, and learned so much along the way. Also, met some amazing mentors at the Hackathon who provided us with valuable advice and tips: Vishwajeet J K and Birks Sachdev. Check out our project on ????????????: https://lnkd.in/ggU6bGQn

ENG | PT Hi everyone! Last weekend, I had the incredible opportunity to participate in the PennApps Hackathon at the University of Pennsylvania! This was my first acceptance in international applications, and I was beyond happy to be part of this hackathon. During the event, I met amazing professionals, explored the UPenn campus, attended workshops hosted by the sponsor companies (shoutout for Hatz AI, which was one of the best!), and had the honor of visiting the historic ENIAC. Additionally, I gained more confidence in my English and formed an international team with people from different parts of the world. Huge thanks to Lina Chihoub, Zora Mardjoko, and all the volunteers who did an amazing job organizing and supporting us throughout the event. Although our project didn’t take home an award, the knowledge gained, the meaningful connections made, and every experience throughout the event made the trip truly worthwhile. And for sure, it definitely exceeded all my expectations. I can’t wait to dive into many more hackathons! --- Oie rede! No último final de semana, tive a incrível oportunidade de participar da PennApps Hackathon na University of Pennsylvania! Essa foi a minha primeira aprova??o em aplica??es internacionais, e fiquei extremamente feliz de ter feito parte dessa hackathon. Durante o evento, conheci profissionais incríveis, explorei o campus da UPenn, participei de workshops das empresas patrocinadoras (um salve para o Hatz AI, que foi um dos melhores!) e tive a honra de visitar o histórico ENIAC. Além disso, consegui ter mais confian?a no meu inglês e formei um grupo com pessoas de diferentes partes do mundo. Gostaria de agradecer especialmente à Lina Chihoub, Zora Mardjoko e a todos os voluntários, que fizeram um trabalho incrível organizando e dando suporte durante todo o evento. Embora nosso projeto n?o tenha ganhado um prêmio, o aprendizado, as conex?es e cada momento vivido fizeram a viagem valer a pena. E com certeza, superaram todas as minhas expectativas. Que venham mais hackathons pela frente!

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to compete in the PennApps hackathon at the University of Pennsylvania. I enjoyed the intensity of the 36-hour event and the valuable learning experience it provided, especially as someone who loves coding personal projects. During the 36 hours, my teammates Amy (Lening) Zhang, Freddie Z., Zhe (Dennis) Wang, and I planned, tested, and developed SnapSpark, an AI-powered wildfire prediction system. The purpose of this software was to offer an accessible way to predict wildfire chances through a simple image, as opposed to the current method, which relies on satellite imagery. A special thanks to the PennApps team for organizing this huge event and to my team for making these 36 hours of code memorable. ??GitHub: https://lnkd.in/ds-75XcZ ??Pitch Slides: https://lnkd.in/d3u3UVjX

PennApps was my first international participation as an undergrad and now, I've come full circle, returning to University of Pennsylvania as Mentor and Judge!! ??♂? ?? ?? During the event, I had the privilege of witnessing brilliant young hackers leveraging AI, blockchain and AR/VR to create innovative, winning product ideas. It was inspiring to guide these teams on enhancing user-friendliness and customer focus, drawing from my own experiences in the industry. I also shared insights on regulatory compliance in medtech and fintech, helping participants navigate potential pitfalls in these complex sectors. ???? ? One of the most rewarding aspects was connecting with fellow mentors and judges from diverse backgrounds - Engineers, Product Leaders and Entrepreneurs. The event culminated with me joining an extraordinary panel of judges and delivering a talk about the tech and product world. During this session, we delved into the global product landscape, discussing how emerging technologies are driving impactful solutions across industries. To all the participants: Your creativity and drive truly inspired me. Let's keep pushing boundaries and build a wonderful future! ???? ?? ?? #PennAppsXXV #PennApps #Wharton #UPenn #Judge #Mentorship #AI #LLM #Blockchain #AR #VR #3D #Product #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #TechCommunity #UserExperience #Hackathon #Networking #Strategy #Marketing #ProductManagement #ProductDesign #TechCareers #ProductLeadership #Startup #StartupCulture #CareerGrowth #ProductDevelopment #JobOpportunities #Internship #Collaboration #ProductStrategy #EmergingTechnologies

?? Reflecting on an Unforgettable Weekend at PennApps! ?? Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending PennApps at University of Pennsylvania, and it was an experience like no other. Our team embarked on a mission to revolutionize healthcare by tackling the challenge of reducing ER wait times. We developed an innovative AI tool called SEVERITY AI, it prioritizes patients based on their symptoms, ensuring that those in critical need receive immediate attention. Our tech stack included Python, JavaScript, React, and Flask, which allowed us to bring our vision to life. While we didn’t take home the top prize, the journey was incredibly rewarding. I had the chance to connect with brilliant minds, including talented hackers like Edward Chhun, Davor Petrovikj, Audrey Chen, and visionary entrepreneurs like Eliam Medina and Cory Levy. It was also inspiring to learn about cutting-edge companies such as Capital One, Bloomberg, Cerebras Systems, Perpay Inc., Roboflow, Tune AI, Susquehanna International Group, Patient Safety Technologies, Inc., and engage with their passionate teams. A huge thank you to everyone who made this event so special! The knowledge gained and the connections made are invaluable, and I can’t wait to apply these insights to future projects in the healthcare space. ?? #PennApps #Hackathon #HealthcareInnovation #AI #Python #JavaScript #LearningExperience #Networking