AURA | Devpost

Main page with overview, and ability to listen to the major news in your field using elvenlabs like a podcast and add tasks to your day plan
Page with canvas and other Learning management integration of upcoming tasks update and AI suggestion
Page that gives you update of all important security updates in your field and important news as well as CVE feed
AI lab, it analyze meetings/videos and gives you and overview summery/tasklist/or flashcard, and gives you the option to chat about it
AI study buddy or field specific question chatbot, with ability to upload file
Learning feed allows students to look for educational videos on youtube through the app
EVENT tab Based on your STEM field it pulls data on the nearest events related to your field and shows them to you closest first
the job board pulls all data about fulltime/parttime jobs and internships for students and professionals
allows you to create folders to keep your data organized, upload materials and automatically analyzes for information and keeps it
Analytics keep track of studnet use of platforms to track trends and out of ordinary behavior to alert you about possibility of fatigue
Welness tab allows students to set timer for themselves to take breaks, and reminds them they should take a break every once in a while
Network allows students & professionals to reachout to other professionals and filtered by distance
Chrome extension allows students to take notes on specfic websites, Get AI generated APA references, and Chat with AI about a page content

Inspiration

We were inspired by how scattered student and professional workflows are across LMS tools, notes apps, calendars, job sites, and AI chat tools. We wanted one platform that reduces stress by connecting planning, learning, and execution in a single workspace.

What it does

AURA is an all-in-one productivity and intelligence app that helps users:

Sync assignments and manage deadlines
Prioritize tasks and generate AI-based schedules
Chat with AI for study/work support
Organize documents, recordings, and transcripts into sections/subsections
Ask AI questions grounded in uploaded content
Gets field-specific security/videos/news intel/and events related to one's field
Discover jobs and learning resources
Track productivity trends and wellness signals -Use a Chrome extension to capture web insights into the app

How we built it

We built AURA using:
Frontend: React + TypeScript + Vite
Backend: Express + TypeScript
Databases: SQLite for core app state, MongoDB for cloud/networking features
AI: Gemini with Backboard failover
Voice: ElevenLabs with Python fallback
Integrations: LMS feeds, YouTube API, USAJobs API, CVE/news feeds, Chrome extension

Challenges we ran into
Keeping all routes/features working consistently as the scope grew
Handling AI/API failures, rate limits, and key configuration issues
Getting reliable, timely event/news data from live web sources
Managing local backend conflicts (multiple ports/processes)
Maintaining a clean UX with many advanced features

Accomplishments that we're proud of
Delivered a multi-feature platform that actually works end-to-end
Built reliable fallback logic for AI and voice services
Added a practical Content Organizer with AI Q&A on uploads
Implemented assignment planning with progress/status controls
Integrated extension-to-app workflow for real productivity context
Kept it cross-platform and runnable locally for rapid iteration

What we learned
Reliability and UX matter as much as AI quality
Fallback design is essential for production-like AI apps
Feature integration is harder than isolated feature development
Fast feedback loops (test, patch, verify) are key in full-stack builds
Clear error messaging dramatically improves user trust

What's next for AURA
Improve live event/news quality and ranking precision
Expand LMS integrations (deeper Blackboard and other platform sync)
Add stronger collaboration and cloud messaging workflows
Improve analytics with richer visualizations and habit insights
Ship better onboarding and guided setup for APIs/integrations
Continue hardening performance, stability, and deployment readiness