ClassmateBot

Inspiration

My interest stems from a glaring crisis: 78% of nearly 2 million Nigerian students fail the annual JAMB exam, locking them out of university. I saw that this wasn't due to a lack of ability, but a lack of access to affordable, quality learning tools and effective study techniques. Expensive private tutors and data-intensive video apps (consuming 0.7 GB/hour, costing up to $\text{₦}475$ per GB) are financially out of reach for most. As an AI Engineer, I was inspired to use technology to bridge this gap by meeting students where they already are: on WhatsApp, using basic smartphones. Education is the most scalable path to opportunity, and I wanted to build a solution that makes passing exams an accessible reality for students in underserved communities.

What it does

InspirationMy interest stems from a glaring crisis: 78% of nearly 2 million Nigerian students fail the annual JAMB exam, locking them out of university. I saw that this wasn't due to a lack of ability, but a lack of access to affordable, quality learning tools and effective study techniques. Expensive private tutors and data-intensive video apps (consuming 0.7 GB/hour, costing up to {₦}475 $ per GB) are financially out of reach for most. As an AI Engineer, I was inspired to use technology to bridge this gap by meeting students where they already are: on WhatsApp, using basic smartphones. Education is the most scalable path to opportunity, and I wanted to build a solution that makes passing exams an accessible reality for students in underserved communities.What it doesClassmateBot is an AI-powered learning assistant delivered via WhatsApp, designed to help secondary school students read less and know more for their WAEC and JAMB exams. It uses simple gamification and proven learning science to optimize knowledge retention.The platform offers:Bite-Sized Lessons: Interactive, short lessons on any topic, like the Opportunity Cost example shown in the demo.Custom Course Generation: Users can generate an entire curriculum on specific topics, e.g., /generate-course opportunity cost.Gamified Quizzes: Daily quizzes and practice sessions leveraging Active Recall to test knowledge immediately.Spaced Repetition: Automated scheduling of review sessions to ensure long-term memory retention.Personalized Tutoring: Instant, tailored feedback and progress tracking from the AI tutor.

How we built it

Tech Stack - Python, Django, LangGraph/LangChain, Twilio WhatsApp API, PostgreSQL, Redis, Celery

ClassmateBot was built as a highly accessible, mobile-first solution:

Platform & API: We used the Twilio WhatsApp API to manage all user interactions directly within WhatsApp, eliminating the need for app downloads or high data consumption.

AI Backbone: AWS Bedrock powers the Large Language Model for personalized content generation, dynamic lesson adaptation, and instant tutoring feedback.

Cloud Infrastructure: The scalable backend and content delivery are hosted on AWS Cloud Services, which ensures reliable service to thousands of students simultaneously.

Learning Science Integration: The core logic is engineered to automatically implement Spaced Repetition and Active Recall—techniques scientifically proven to maximize memory retention.

Challenges we ran into

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are most proud of successfully creating a functional MVP and validating the core hypothesis:

High Engagement & Preference: Early testing showed high student engagement and a strong preference for the WhatsApp learning interface over traditional, costly video applications.

Accessible Technology: We've proven that quality, AI-powered exam prep can be delivered on the basic smartphones prevalent in low-income areas.

Foundational Support: We secured $500 in cloud credits as an AWS Community Builder, providing the initial technical foundation for scalability and development

What we learned

What's next for ClassmateBot

Built With

• amazon-web-services
• django
• langchain
• python