Sia-Mental Health bot

Talk to SIA, because being heard matters.

Comment

Inspiration

Mental health is something everyone deals with, yet many don’t have someone to talk to or feel judged when they do. We wanted to create a buddy-like AI that listens without judgment. SIA (Supportive Intelligent Assistant) is meant to be that safe space, letting people express their thoughts and feel heard anytime, anywhere.

What it does

-Chat Buddy – Users can have a natural, friendly conversation with SIA.

  • Journal Prompts – SIA provides gentle writing prompts to help users reflect. -Breathing Suggestions (MVP idea) – Planned feature for guided breathing to reduce stress.
  • Friendly UI – A soft, bubble-style chat window that feels like texting a friend.

How I built it

Frontend: Built with React (Vite) for speed and simplicity. Used vanilla CSS for a calm, friendly UI.

-Backend: Created with Node.js + Express, handling API routes and connecting the frontend to SIA’s responses.

-AI Brain: Integrated OpenAI API for conversational, non-judgmental replies.

-Testing: Used Thunder Client to test backend routes before linking everything together.

Challenges we ran into

  • Tailwind CSS setup failed multiple times, forcing us to switch to clean vanilla CSS.

  • Connecting React and Express smoothly took some debugging.

-Time pressure meant we had to cut features like mood tracking and guided breathing animations.

  • Language sensitivity — we had to design responses that were friendly and safe, not medical or “therapeutic.”

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Built a working full-stack MVP in a short time.

-Created a calming, friendly UI instead of a robotic chatbot look.

-Made SIA feel like a buddy who listens, which was our core goal.

-Learned how to pivot under pressure (from Tailwind to CSS) and still ship the product.

What we learned

-How to set up and structure a hackathon project quickly.

-The importance of UX tone and color choices for mental health tools.

-Debugging is half the work in hackathons (and that’s okay).

-Why MVP scope matters — do less, but do it well.

What's next for Sia-Mental Health bot

Mood Tracker Dashboard

-A simple daily mood log where SIA records your emotions and shows progress over time with friendly graphs. -Smarter, more empathetic AI (better memory & contextual replies). -Saved journal entries for self-reflection.

  • Multi-language support to reach more users globally.

-A mobile-friendly version (and maybe even a future mobile app).

Built With

  • custom-designed-ui-node.js-+-express-?-to-power-the-backend-server-openai-api-?-for-ai-powered
  • express.js
  • github
  • javascript
  • modular-frontend-vanilla-css-?-for-a-calming
  • node.js
  • npm
  • openai
  • react-vite
  • thunderclient
  • vanillacss
Share this project:

Updates