ZenGenius

Inspiration

In a world filled with overwhelming amounts of information and distractions, we wanted to create a tool that not only makes studying more efficient, but also more engaging. Our inspiration came from a simple yet powerful idea: turn passive reading into active learning. We imagined a world where students could upload lecture PDFs, instantly generate key takeaways and quiz questions, and actually enjoy their revision process.

That dream became our hackathon project: ZenGenius.

What We Built:

ZenGenius is a full-stack study tool powered by generative AI that allows users to: -Upload a PDF (e.g. a lecture or textbook)

Automatically summarize the content using Google’s gemini-1.5-flash model
Generate flashcards with questions and answers
Flip through flashcards in a smooth UI
Track their study sessions and progress

It’s a sleek platform that combines AI summarization, authentication via Auth0, and a fully integrated MongoDB backend, with a user-friendly React frontend powered by Chakra UI.

Tech Stack: -Frontend: React, Chakra UI

Backend: Node.js, Express, MongoDB, Mongoose
Auth: Auth0
AI: Google Generative AI API (gemini-1.5-flash)

How We Built It:

Designed a REST API backend using Express and connected it to MongoDB with Mongoose
Used multer and pdf-parse to handle PDF uploads and extract raw text
Connected to the gemini-1.5-flash API to summarize the document and generate Q&A
Secured routes using JWT and Auth0 integration
Built a flashcard interface using Chakra UI with flip animations
Implemented user dashboard and profile pages for personalized study session history

Challenges We Faced: