Dumbify

Inspiration

After being approached by a successful entrepreneur (he pulled up a photo with Elon Musk) while brainstorming our project, we were somehow introduced to the idea of linear fractals amidst our conversation. Earlier in the day, our group was bonding over trending "brainrot" memes and online videos and shared a laughing moment at the way our society has ended up to where these videos are dominating the internet. Given this shared knowledge among our group and our shared lack of knowledge of the complex idea of linear fractals, we thought of the idea to build an app that would help us break down intellectually stimulating concepts into terminology and intellect that we could all understand.

What it does

Dumbify is a state-of-the-art chatbot that utilizes Claude API to unpack complex concepts in terms of each user's unique, personal passions.

How we built it

Dumbify was built using a simple Flask web app using embedded CSS and JS for the frontend. The backend uses Flask to handle the two main endpoints. One for learning and the other for using document processing with pypdf. The core functionality uses user inputs (topic, interests and learning style) and uses Claude's API to give the user a simple explanation.

Challenges we ran into

All being beginner coders, we took this as an opportunity to learn coding fundamentals and technical terms. We all come from different backgrounds, whether it be mathematics, informatics, psychology, or electrical engineering. Given this, we lacked any advanced coding abilities. This didn't stop us, as we still proppeled our strengths to produce a project that provided a tangible solution to each of our lives.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Under the same realm, we are extremely proud that, given our coding abilities and knowledge of the tech landscape, we were still able to come together and produce something that we can be proud of and have real-world application in our lives.

What we learned

We learned immeasurable amounts of knowledge, whether it be technical coding terms and techniques like embedding APIs into our code, to general knowledge of artificial intelligence and how everyday people interact with technology. We left this experience with an unimaginable amount of information and newfound ambitions to incorporate ourselves in the world of AI and technology.

What's next for Dumbify

We believe that Dumbify has the potential to be used for a plethora of end users, whether it be at a sophisticated capacity, such as the education system, or just simple everyday life, like stumbling across an idea you are unfamiliar with. Dumbify has the potential to make everybody feel smarter by becoming a bit dumber.