Edwin: the TA AI

Inspiration

We wanted to reimagine how students interact with their courses. Many struggle to find answers quickly, prepare for exams, or stay on track. Edwin AI was inspired by the idea of giving every student a 24/7 personal teaching assistant inside Canvas.

What it does

Edwin AI lives inside Canvas as a Chrome extension. It answers course-specific questions, generates adaptive quizzes with explanations, and tracks learning progress through streaks and goals—helping students succeed anytime, anywhere.

How we built it

We built the front end as a Chrome extension using React, styled for seamless integration into Canvas. The backend is powered by Flask, with GPT-4 providing generative responses and quiz creation. Course materials are stored and retrieved using Snowflake, and the extension communicates with the backend through REST APIs.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into difficulties connecting the front end with the backend, handling API responses reliably, and making the UI work smoothly inside the Canvas environment. Time constraints also made it challenging to balance polish with functionality.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud that Edwin AI works end-to-end and has the potential to help millions of students worldwide. From answering real course questions to creating quizzes, our project shows how AI can transform the learning experience.

What we learned

We learned how to integrate Chrome extensions with custom backends, work with generative AI APIs in a real-world workflow, and optimize user experience for students. We also gained experience managing frontend–backend communication challenges under time pressure.

What's next for Edwin: the TA AI

Next, we plan to scale beyond a single course, add professor dashboards, and expand to multiple universities. We’ll also focus on promoting Edwin AI to bring this revolutionary learning tool to students worldwide.