Senior engineers Ben Newcomb (chemical) and Zabari Ross (mechanical) teamed up with Brown biochemistry senior Jeet Patel and Northeastern engineer Ryan Tran to take first place overall, and second place in the sponsor award at Harvard University’s 24-hour engineering hackathon Feb. 4-5, 2023.
The group created a device that automatically flips and scans pages of a book, generates a PDF file, and converts text to speech.The scanned text is also read into an AI that can answer questions about the material, and its goal is to make book digitization more affordable for consumers.
The first place prize awarded was four Roku F11Pro drones. Infosys, the main sponsor of the event, also selected three groups to interview for a chance at an all-expenses-covered summer internship in one of its offices in India.
MakeHarvard is in its sixth year, open to current undergraduate and graduate students from all backgrounds. Competing teams have a chance to win first, second and third overall awards, as well as network with engineers around the world. The official hackathon for hardware was held in Harvard’s newly built Science and Engineering complex in Allston.
“It was an incredible experience to be surrounded by engineers from all over the country and to have the opportunity to put our skills to the test in this 24-hour design and prototyping marathon,” said Newcomb. “I'm immensely grateful to my team for keeping the competition fun and exciting!"