A group of Johns Hopkins master’s students placed first in the Arize AI Sponsor Track at this year’s NexHacks hackathon, which took place January 17–18 at Carnegie Mellon University.
NexHacks is a flagship hackathon series hosted at top U.S. universities, bringing together the next generation of elite technical builders, founders, and researchers.
In under 24 hours, CS master’s students Joy Bhalla and Arnab Maity—plus robotics master’s student Bontalakoti Venkata Harshavardhan—built PulsePoint, a medical device concept that acts as a first aid kit, a medical dispensary, and a real-time bridge between patients and medical professionals.
They created their prototype by adding a webcam and microphone to a regular first aid kit and using a large language model to provide patients with accurate medical consultations. They made sure that users could also ask for a second opinion to be connected with real doctors.
Not only did the students’ win earn them a $1,000 prize, but it validated both their technical approach and the problem they set out to solve, they say.
“Hacking at Nexhacks was amazing,” says Maity. “We got to interact with a lot of fellow hackers and had the chance to speak with investors, startup founders, and sponsors. This helped us grow our network and learn more about technical insights and potential opportunities.”
The students look forward to implementing more complex features and expanding the capabilities of PulsePoint in the future.