Students using AI for good win $17,000 in Nittany AI Challenge

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Six Penn State student teams using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for good to solve real-world problems were selected by a panel of judges to share a prize pool of $17,000 to continue to develop their projects further as winners of the 2024 Nittany AI Challenge.

The annual competition provides students the opportunity to address pressing global issues and build solutions using AI and machine learning while gaining hands-on experience. It is one of the ways the Nittany AI Alliance brings together students, faculty, staff, community organizations and businesses to celebrate, explore and discover innovative ways to use AI for good.

Each of this year’s winning teams started their journey as one of 37 teams, featuring 118 students, that entered prototype submissions in January. Eleven teams were awarded $500 based on their prototype to continue their projects.

The top teams were selected from 12 teams that developed their ideas into minimal viable products (MVPs) and pitched them to judges in the final phase of the competition on April 18.

Jeremy Frank, CEO of KCF Technologies, served on the judge’s panel. He said the program provided students with invaluable experience as they move forward in their education and towards their careers.

“These kids are learning a ton. These are the things that you talk about during a job interview. You don’t talk about what you learned in class, you talk about what you did in an applied group activity like the Nittany AI Challenge, and I absolutely would want to hear about that if I were interviewing someone,” Frank said. “This was just very impressive.”

Winning teams were made up of students from the College of Agricultural Sciences, the College of Arts and Architecture, the College of Education, the College of Engineering, and the College of Information Sciences and Technology, and are from Penn State University Park and Penn State World Campus.

The 2024 Nittany AI Challenge winners are:

First place ($5,000 winners — tie)

• AdvIsor: An application that provides AI-powered dynamic and personalized assistance to help undergraduate students complete their degrees on time, minimizing education expenses and shortening the time needed to complete a degree. Team members: Vishnu Vengopal, Veer Shah and Krishna Pagrut
• bioWatch: An AI and computer vision solution for tracking invasive insect species that are negatively impacting ecosystems in the United States. bioWatch facilitates real-time tracking of species distribution across a region, enabling quick action to manage outbreaks. Team members: Kyle Ketterer, Benjamin Oleynik, Kittiphum Pawikhum, Ludy Ren, Matthew Walter and Yanqiu Yang

Third place ($2,000 winner)

• Kinderverse: Utilizing AI, Kinderverse generates interactive and adaptive stories that immerse children aged four to six years old in learning.Team members: Suraj Kumar, Aneesh Singh, Tanush Sanjay, Alex Floor, Ashad Hanafi, Biance Puglin, Ethan Flynn and Daniel Woodford                           

Fourth Place ($2,000 winner)

• TasteMate: uses AI to provide personalized meals that fit individual dietary preferences and health needs. TasteMate generates meal recipes based on the data users provide about their diet, health concerns, medications they are taking and preferred cuisines. Team members: Alex Henri Piechucki, Dylan Michael Klass, Scott Charles Theriot, Amin Justin Armet, Aaron Thomas Polansky and Riley Costello.

Fifth Place ($2,000 winner)

• CARL: an AI teaching assistant designed to foster dynamic interactions between students and teachers, offering tailored support for action learning strategies. Team members: Andrew Klawa, Neha Pandit, Jared Daniel, Timothy Birmingham and Sunghee Choi

Vishwamitra AI Geography Award Funded by the GeoEd Foundation ($1,000 winner)

• Project Green Thumb: An application to help homeowners and landscapers restore biodiversity to their landscapes by increasing the use of native plant species and decreasing the use of harmful pesticides and fertilizers. Team members: Nathan Leo, Raymond Yan and Frank Barbano

After winning a first-place prize, team members from bioWatch urged students to consider getting involved with the Nittany AI Challenge and the Nittany AI Alliance, no matter how much experience they have.

“Go for it, you don’t have to have experience, I certainly didn’t. You learn so much during this competition and you have fun along the way,” bioWatch team member Kyle Ketterer said.

“The Nittany AI Challenge provides a lot of support, a lot of resources, and mentors that are very helpful. You will get something out of this competition, even if you don’t win the prizes. You are getting the experience and are learning so much. So yeah, go for it,” added Yanqiu Yang.

AdvIsor was not one of the teams that won funding based on their prototype submission in January, but the team persevered and continued to develop their idea. Their hard work paid off as they took home a top prize.

“If there is one thing to take away from this year, it has been the Nittany AI Challenge. We worked for five months, pulled all-nighters and poured our hearts into this. Not winning the prototype phase just fueled us, where we were determined,” team member Vishnu Venugopal said.  “All of us had to learn new skills from the ground up, like implementing an AI chatbot, and it has been extremely rewarding.”

Kinderverse team member Suraj Kumar said he was inspired to develop the educational application after visiting his young cousin last summer.

“He can’t walk or talk, but he knows how to use the YouTube shorts. He just kept scrolling and it was generally the most shocking thing I have seen in a while,” Kumar said. “Kinderverse is aiming to be an alternative source of entertainment for children aged four to six, that combines story books with AI technology to create an engaging and educational experience.”

Tastemate team member Alex Piechucki said the team will take the skills they developed during the competition and the funding they received to continue the work they started in the Nittany AI Challenge.

“This isn’t the end here, this is just the beginning of TasteMate,” Piechucki said. “All the money is going to further develop the app. We are going to work on it all summer, so we will see where it goes.”

The Nittany AI Alliance is a Penn State Outreach initiative that brings together students, faculty, staff and industry leaders with nonprofit and community organizations to address real-world problems through experiential learning projects using AI.

Students, faculty and industry leaders looking to get involved next semester are encouraged to attend the AI for Good Expo on Sept. 5.