AutoGrant

Full stack web application using React and Google Gemini to automate the creation of Grant Proposals from an user given RFP and Grant Proposal template.

Comment

Inspiration

We were inspired to work on this project because we have been wanting to build a React and Node.Js based project for some time now, have plenty of Gemini experience, and a large amount of history working with pdf handling and file.io type technologies through our coursework so it was definitely in our wheelhouse. It also feels very rewarding to work on a more niche issue rather than an issue that is very general and encompassing because it feels more personal to be working on a project that you know will help someone deal with the minute stressors of their life that are overlooked.

What it does

AutoGrant is a full stack web application that takes in two PDFs one an Request for Proposal (RFP) and the other a template. Using these two PDFs it communicates with the Gemini API and will then generate a Grant Proposal which can be reviewed and then downloaded as a fully formatted PDF.

How we built it

We created this project using React for the frontend and Javascript and Typescript for the backend. Node.js and Express were used to host and send data so our application could communicate with the Google Gemini API. Two PDFs put in by the user are run through base64 so the binary data can be understood by Gemini and then using the prompt it prints out its response as a preview onto the frontend. Puppeteer then makes that preview text into a clean formatted PDF that can be downloaded

Challenges we ran into

One of our main challenges was getting Gemini to recognize the PDFs and follow those formats. We both had experience in doing full stack applications but we had not used React before which led to another challenge we had to take on.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Learning React for this project and utilizing Gemini to have a fully working full stack web application after these 36 hours is something we are quite proud of.

What we learned

We learned a lot about Web Development and web based technologies, as it was our first time working so deeply in the field. We had lots of scattered experience but building a full stack project using React, Node.js, Gemini, Puppeteer, Bootstrap, and other web development tools was lots of fun. It was nice to work with something that felt so familiar yet so new, and we are very excited to keep making web development projects in the future.

What's next for AutoGrant

There is more quality of life features that can be added to AutoGrant after this. This application already stores the JSON files of what is generated and in the future these files can be connected to the frontend allowing users to have a history of Grant Proposals that have been generated to download or look back on. Another feature that we would like to implement is the ability for a user to add any additional details in a text field and have Gemini be able to reference that third source of data for its Grant Proposal automation.

Share this project:

Updates