Mental Canvas

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  overview of project

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  more info

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  last info

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  prototype w/ Replit

Inspiration

As an ambitious teenager I'd always thought I wanted to be an engineer until I realized that the way in which I approached and relished problems was far more analytical and abstract. I thought I was sure, and out of my friends I was surest yet I still ended up pursuing mathematics, not because I was bad at physics or my "personality didn't suit" an engineer, but because the way in which I processed information was highly aligned with a mathematician's thought process.

What it does

My site helps people find the most suitable career or field of study for them, but it's not those typical short-form response "personality quizzes" online, it's a 60-75 minute exam, with specific and detailed case studies that explore different scenarios and poke at different skills and aim to showcase how the responder thinks rather than his final answer. Most teenagers dont understand themselves enough, so I give them 5 challenging problems (often involving an incident) and give them space to type out or draw (diagrams, sketches, math...) their response in way they like to try and fix the issue. What matters are their curiosities, initial instincts, way of breaking down the problem (do they think linearly? do they keep going back and forth? what do they focus on?) and how they express those thoughts. The AI component is running an algorithm I came up with to analyze the responses and classify the thinking patterns, then relate them to a specific field. After that, they receive an email with the report of what suits them most (thinking style as percentages) as well as practical advice they can take as high schoolers (actually ~13 - 20 yrs) to reach that place.

How we built it

I spent 5 hours brainstorming on paper and Google Docs, organized it, then fed it all into Replit for him to code the interface and UI/UX for me as I had only an hour left to submit

Challenges we ran into

I only found out about the hackathon 7 hours before it was time to submit. It was a race against time to brainstorm, plan, implement, and execute my idea. I didn't have time to code it or even help code it myself. I had to rely on an AI agent. I tried Claude Code at first but due to my internet issues and my independence, credit ran out without him even giving me anything yet (technical difficulty). Same happened in Figma. I tried Replit, revising the prompt to prioritizing the front-end, and it worked.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

That I was able to bring my idea to life from 1am to 6:30am somehow right on time. I was close to crying and crashing out for pulling an all-nighter after an already horrible day for this just because I liked my idea and the hackathon.

What we learned

Don't start last-minute projects, is it really worth the health risks? Also, don't rely on Claude Code.

What's next for Mental Canvas

Publishing the website and receiving feedback from real people as now it's currently just a prototype.

Built With

• replit