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#interface of designed prototype
Inspiration
Many students, especially introverts, find it hard to study in groups or libraries, and studying alone can feel lonely and discouraging. I wanted a study partner that feels like a calm friend, not a strict teacher, so nobody has to feel they are studying alone.
What it does
StudyBuddy is a web app where an AI companion called Sage studies with you. She:
- explains a topic in small steps with simple examples,
- quizzes you one question at a time,
- explains mistakes kindly without judging,
- answers your doubts,
- encourages you when you feel stuck or tired.
It is a simulated Alexa+ style assistant: a friendly conversational study partner in a web chat.
How I built it
- Frontend: HTML, CSS and JavaScript chat page.
- Backend: Python with Flask.
- AI: Google Gemini API, guided by a system prompt that defines Sage's personality, her quiz behaviour (one question at a time, kind explanations, a short score at the end) and how she responds when someone is tired or stuck.
- The server retries automatically when the AI service is busy, and falls back to simple built-in replies if no API key is set.
- The code is open source (MIT) on GitHub with setup instructions.
Challenges I ran into
I am a beginner, and this is my first hackathon project. I ran into folder and virtual environment mistakes, a secret-key file that was not being read, and a Gemini model that was no longer available to new users. I also hit "model busy" errors and network drops, which I handled with retries and a fallback model. Responses can be slow at busy times, so the demo video is lightly edited to trim waiting time.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I went from a basic chat page to a working AI study buddy with real quiz behaviour, published it as an open-source project, and learned to debug the full chain from browser to server to AI API.
What I learned
How to build a Flask backend, connect it to an LLM API, keep API keys out of GitHub, write a system prompt that shapes behaviour, and handle errors and retries.
What's next for StudyBuddy
A study timer for guided sessions, memory of what you finished and what is incomplete, study streaks, a progress panel, and a voice mode so Sage can speak and listen like a real Alexa+ experience.
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