RAYS Crew

The AI chat works on our local computer but is not working on the hosted website. We will demonstrate this feature live to the jury on our computer. Please use the other sections of the hosted website to explore the project and its evidence.

Inspiration

Project information rarely lives in one place. Important decisions are buried in emails, deadlines change across documents, and meeting notes hold context that new team members may never see. We built NOVA to help teams answer a simple question: “What do we know about this project, and where is the evidence?”

What it does

NOVA turns scattered project records into a searchable project memory. Users can explore events through a timeline and calendar, review decisions and responsibilities by topic, and ask questions in everyday language. Answers include supporting sources so users can check the information themselves. NOVA also highlights conflicting records and distinguishes planned work from confirmed results. When new information arrives, users can review it, examine its potential effects, and add it to the project while preserving earlier records.

How we built it

We built the website with React, JavaScript, and CSS, using Python and FastAPI to organize documents, search their contents, and prepare answers. We added support for project materials such as emails, PDFs, spreadsheets, and text files, and deployed the website on Railway. The different views share the same project records, connecting the overview, timeline, calendar, document search, and question-answering experience.

Challenges we ran into

The hardest part was interpreting information consistently across different documents. A recently written document may describe an older event. A proposed deadline may never have been approved. A person mentioned in an email may not be responsible for the work. We designed NOVA to preserve these distinctions, show supporting passages, and leave missing information unknown. Handling new information also required care: the latest update should help explain the project’s current situation without erasing how it got there.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We brought project history, document search, sourced answers, and update review into one website. Users can move from a broad overview to the original supporting evidence, making the project easier to understand and explain.

What we learned

We learned that useful project memory requires more than collecting documents or generating summaries. Dates, context, responsibilities, and evidence all matter. We also learned that a clear answer should acknowledge uncertainty. Showing what the records support—and what still needs verification—helps users make better decisions.

What's next for Untitled

We want to improve how NOVA reads complex documents, make changes between project versions easier to compare, and provide more convenient standalone exports for sharing and review.