StudyFlex

Inspiration

As college students, we understand many students feel overwhelmed when it comes to balancing coursework, midterms, and exams, especially when deadlines are looming. There might not be enough time to study everything thoroughly. While flashcards have always been a helpful tool for reinforcing memory, the time and effort required to create them can feel like just another hurdle, particularly when the exam clock is ticking.

That’s where our inspiration for StudyFlex was born. We wanted to create something that could help students, who need a faster, smarter way to review material. Our goal was simple: to build a tool that automates the creation of flashcards from notes, slides, textbooks, and even lecture audio files, allowing students to focus on learning, not on preparing to learn.

What it does

Our web application simplifies the study process by generating flashcards automatically from class notes, slides, or even textbook information. By uploading these resources, our tool uses AI to extract key concepts and create flashcards, allowing students to focus on studying rather than creating the cards themselves. Additionally, it can generate flashcards from topic inputs, covering a wide range of materials from short notes to entire textbook chapters, helping students prepare more efficiently, even under tight deadlines.

How we built it

We developed our application using a combination of technologies: Material UI and Next.js to design the front end, and OpenAI's API along with Firebase to process text and topics to generate flashcards. The system stores the generated flashcards, allowing users to return and review them anytime. We also attempted to enable students to upload PDF slides or lecture audio, which would be processed to generate flashcards, making the study experience even more streamlined.

Challenges we ran into

One of our main challenges was integrating Whisper.ai to process audio files from lectures. Unfortunately, we encountered issues with accessing and interacting with the uploaded files, which prevented us from implementing this feature fully. However, we look to use this feature in the future. Additionally, as a team of beginners, we faced difficulties with version control, especially when it came to multiple people coding simultaneously on the front and backend. Merging both the front end and back end was tricky at first, but we did it at the end!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved at the end of the hackathon. Our application successfully takes input from various formats—topics, slides, texts from textbooks, and notes—and generates comprehensive flashcards in a matter of seconds, saving users a significant amount of time and effort. We’re also proud of how quickly our team came together. Many of us had never worked together before and met just hours before the hackathon started, yet we collaborated effectively and brought this project to life.

What we learned

Throughout the hackathon, we learned a great deal about both the technologies we used and how to collaborate effectively as a team. This was the first hackathon for a majority of us, which made the experience both challenging and exciting. We divided our efforts between front-end and back-end development, and although we encountered obstacles, such as troubleshooting Git conflicts, it was a fun learning process. We each gained hands-on experience in combining our individual contributions using Git and GitHub, learning not only how to build the project but also how to integrate our developments smoothly. For many of us, this was our first time working on a project of this scope, and the hackathon has given us invaluable insights into both technical skills and teamwork.

What's next for StudyFlex

In the future, we plan to revisit the challenges we encountered, especially around file uploads. Our goal is to enable students to seamlessly upload not just PDFs but also audio files and even online videos from their study sessions. By improving this feature, StudyFlex will be able to generate flashcards and quizzes from a broader range of study materials, making the studying process even more efficient and personalized. We envision a platform that fully integrates multimedia content, helping students turn any resource into an interactive and productive learning tool.

Built With

• firebase
• javascript
• material.ui
• next.js
• node.js
• openai
• react