certif.ai

Inspiration

Some of our team members experienced how difficult it is for students to identify the exact courses, certifications, and experiences needed to pursue their careers. Many students rely on scattered online resources, general advising, or word-of-mouth from upperclassmen, which often leads to confusion and inefficient planning. We wanted to create a centralized solution that actually helps students.

What it does

certif.ai generates personalized four-year academic plans that help students align their coursework and interests with specific career goals. Unlike generic AI planning tools, certif.ai integrates directly with UC Davis OASIS course data, alumni academic pathways, and the UC Davis club network to provide recommendations grounded in real student outcomes. By analyzing how successful alumni navigated their coursework, certifications, and extracurricular involvement, current students receive a tailored plan to follow along through their college careers. Our product makes suggestions specific to an individual's school to help them remain competitive and prepared for post-graduate opportunities. By combining academic planning with career exploration, certif.ai turns uncertainty and confusion into structured, actionable steps.

How we built it

We started by designing a clear user flow focused on simplicity and personalization. Users upload their transcript, resume, and interests, allowing the platform to analyze their background and suggest potential career pathways. From there, certif.ai generates a tailored academic roadmap and recommends relevant experiences aligned with each pathway. Students who know what career path they want to pursue already can also benefit from certif.ai because of the suggestions and organization that are on one platform.

Challenges we ran into

One of our main challenges was defining a realistic budget in developing certif.ai while planning for potential integration with UC Davis systems. Balancing technical feasibility with institutional partnerships required careful steps and consideration.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

With the user interviews we conducted, we validated that many students struggle with career planning and pathway discovery. Hearing consistent feedback confirmed that our solution addresses a real problem for students, supporting the impact of our product. As a team, we also agreed that this product would have greatly influenced our college experiences by saving time on research, discovering new careers, and remaining competitive.

What we learned

We learned how to create a good and realistic GTM strategy that prioritizes user needs, scalable growth, and realistic expectations. Our product is tailored towards UC Davis students, but understanding how we would grow to other schools was interesting to research and consider.