Purdue University Fort Wayne students earn first place at national UCLA hackathon

Three Purdue University Fort Wayne students recently earned national recognition after taking home first place at LA Hacks 2026, one of the largest collegiate hackathons in the United States, hosted by University of California, Los Angeles.

Competing against more than 1,000 students and over 300 teams from leading universities across the country—including Ivy League institutions and Purdue University—the Purdue Fort Wayne team demonstrated the innovation, creativity, and technical expertise that continue to define the university’s students.

The team included Honors students Ishita Gupta and Sudarshan Krishnan, alongside graduate student Om Singhal. During the intense 36-hour competition, the students developed StudyO, an AI-powered learning platform designed to help students better synthesize, organize, and retain information gathered from multiple educational sources.

StudyO transforms fragmented study materials into interactive and engaging learning experiences through several advanced features, including:

• A serverless video engine that converts raw content into narrated, captioned explainer videos in under 60 seconds
• A Chrome extension currently in development that aggregates and filters content from platforms such as Canvas, Brightspace, YouTube, and academic repositories
• Collaborative study tools that support shared and synchronized learning environments
• A voice-based AI tutor grounded in user-provided materials for adaptive, interactive learning
• An Apple application that records lectures and allows students to upload them for later use, enabling chat-based Q&A, quiz generation, mind maps, and AI-generated video summaries

The project earned 1st Place in the Education Track sponsored by Cloudinary—an honor awarded to only one team in the category and based on both technical execution and real-world impact.

The recognition also generated strong interest from industry mentors and judges, who encouraged the team to continue developing the platform beyond the competition. The students are now exploring future opportunities for StudyO, including participation in startup incubator and accelerator programs through Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Their accomplishment highlights the growing impact of Purdue Fort Wayne students on a national stage and reflects the university’s commitment to innovation, experiential learning, and preparing graduates to lead in emerging industries and technologies.