Lumora

Why chase opportunities when they can find you? Lumora's AI matches your achievements with scholarships, grants, and fellowships worldwide.

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Inspiration

Every year, billions in scholarship and grant funding go unclaimed—not because students lack talent, but because they never discover the opportunities they're eligible for. Information is scattered across thousands of websites, eligibility requirements are difficult to interpret, deadlines are easy to miss, and applications often require essays and documents that can overwhelm students.

We wanted to build a platform where opportunities find students instead of students endlessly searching for opportunities. With AI acting as a personal education advisor, Lumora empowers students to focus on achieving their dreams rather than navigating a complex application process.

What it does

Lumora is an AI-powered platform that helps students discover scholarships, grants, fellowships, internships, and government funding opportunities tailored to their unique academic profile. Students create a profile containing information such as their academic achievements, interests, financial background, extracurricular activities, and career goals. AI then continuously analyzes this information to recommend highly relevant funding opportunities. Lumora also includes intelligent AI agents that: Match students with the most suitable opportunities using personalized eligibility analysis. Explain why a student qualifies and identify any missing requirements. Generate application essays, Statements of Purpose (SOPs), motivation letters, and document checklists. Review essays and provide actionable feedback on clarity, grammar, structure, and impact. Track deadlines and send timely reminders so students never miss an application. Allow students to chat with an AI assistant for personalized scholarship guidance.

How we built it

We designed Lumora as a scalable AI-powered SaaS platform using the Google Cloud ecosystem.

Frontend

Next.js React TypeScript Tailwind CSS Framer Motion shadcn/ui

Backend

Firebase Authentication Firestore Cloud Functions Cloud Storage

Google Cloud Services

Gemini API for intelligent reasoning, essay generation, and conversational assistance. Vertex AI for orchestrating specialized AI agents. Firestore for storing student profiles, applications, and scholarship data. Cloud Scheduler for automated deadline monitoring and reminder notifications. Cloud Storage for securely managing uploaded documents.

The platform follows a multi-agent architecture where each AI agent specializes in a specific task, working together to deliver personalized recommendations and application support.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was designing an AI system capable of understanding complex scholarship eligibility criteria, which often involve multiple conditions such as nationality, academic performance, financial need, field of study, and extracurricular achievements.

Another challenge was structuring the AI agent workflow so that each agent handled a focused responsibility while sharing context efficiently. We also had to design a user experience that made AI recommendations transparent by explaining why a scholarship was suggested instead of simply listing results.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Built a multi-agent AI platform that acts as a personalized scholarship advisor. Designed an intelligent eligibility matching system that goes beyond keyword searches. Integrated AI-powered essay writing and review to simplify the application process. Developed an automated deadline tracking system that helps students stay organized. Created a scalable architecture using Google Cloud services that can support future expansion into internships, fellowships, education loans, and career opportunities.

What we learned

Building Lumora reinforced the importance of combining AI with thoughtful product design. We learned that users trust AI more when recommendations are accompanied by clear explanations and actionable guidance.

We also gained valuable experience designing AI agent workflows, integrating Google Cloud AI services, managing scalable cloud infrastructure, and creating a platform focused on solving a meaningful real-world problem rather than simply showcasing AI capabilities.

What's next for Lumora

Our vision is for Lumora to become a comprehensive AI-powered education opportunity platform.

Future plans include:

Expanding the database to include scholarships, grants, internships, fellowships, competitions, and research funding from around the world. Building partnerships with universities, governments, NGOs, and scholarship providers for verified opportunities. Introducing AI-powered scholarship success predictions based on applicant profiles and historical trends. Providing multilingual support to improve accessibility for students globally. Launching mobile applications for Android and iOS with real-time notifications. Enabling universities and scholarship providers to use Lumora as a platform to manage applications and discover qualified candidates.

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