Numina – Your Last-Minute Study Superpower

Inspiration

We're a bunch of high school students who always end up cramming the night before a big exam. We wanted a faster, smarter way to actually understand concepts instead of just searching random videos or reading long PDFs. That’s why we created Numina—an AI-powered tutor that explains anything through animated videos and lets you test your understanding instantly.

What it does

Numina is a full-stack learning platform that turns any confusing topic into:

A narrated 3Blue1Brown-style animation
A live AI tutor who can talk with you via voice-to-voice conversation
A custom quiz and flashcard set to help you retain what you learned

It’s like having your own personal tutor, animator, and exam coach—all in one app.

How we built it

Backend

Flask + SocketIO for the real-time engine
Gemini + Claude AI for generating educational scripts and Manim code
Manim + FFmpeg to render animated videos on the fly
Tavus API to generate personalized, talking AI tutors
JWT Authentication for secure user login
Quiz/flashcard generation using LLM-based evaluation

Frontend

Built with Next.js + React + Tailwind CSS
Integrated video playback, live chat, AI voice tutor, and interactive quizzes
WebRTC used to support seamless real-time interaction
Smooth UI/UX designed for last-minute study sessions

Challenges we ran into

Making AI-generated scripts sync perfectly with Manim visuals
Supporting real-time video rendering without crashing the server
Building natural voice-to-voice AI conversations
Creating accurate auto-generated quizzes based on unique scripts

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Fully automated learning pipeline from “topic” to video + live AI tutor + quiz
Voice conversations that feel human and informative
Flashcards and quizzes that reinforce retention—no extra work for users
Actually useful for us during real exam prep!