Curiosity to Clarity: Raghavendra’s First Step Into Real-World AI
Student: Raghavendra Manvi
Year: 2nd Year, DSU
Hackathon: Flipr Hackathon 27.1
Background
When you’re in your 2nd year, everything in tech still feels new — frameworks, databases, tools, and problems you want to explore but haven’t yet built for.
For Raghavendra, that curiosity led him to Flipr Hackathon 27.1.
He found the event through a Telegram group and immediately felt the urge to test his skills. He had explored many things online, but this was his chance to see whether he could actually apply them in a real-world environment.
It was his first hackathon, and he wanted to understand what it truly feels like to work under pressure, collaborate with a team, and build something meaningful from scratch.
The Challenge
As a beginner stepping into his first hackathon, Raghavendra faced challenges right from the start. Team coordination wasn’t easy, and learning unfamiliar concepts — especially vector databases — added to the difficulty.
He struggled with API integration and couldn’t connect the pieces the way he initially planned. These weren’t beginner-friendly issues; they were real engineering challenges that required quick thinking and adaptability.
Instead of stepping back, he pushed through every hurdle. Those difficult hours became the moments where he learned the most, gaining clarity on how projects actually come together.
The Hackathon Experience
When he talks about his Flipr experience, Raghavendra describes it as “really good.”
For him, that simple phrase carries a lot — excitement, pressure, discovery, and the joy of completing his first-ever hackathon.
The event gave him exposure to real-world development for the first time. He understood what it means to build fast, break things, fix them under time pressure, and keep moving with his team.
It wasn’t just a competition; it was the moment he realized how much more there is to learn — and how capable he was of learning it.
The Project
Raghavendra and his team built an AI Customer Support System — a chatbot designed to respond instantly to real-time customer queries.
Using Django, he built pipelines and backend logic.
Using ChromaDB, he stored information and fetched the most relevant answers to generate immediate responses.
The system felt real, practical, and aligned with modern AI-driven customer support.
For a 2nd-year student, working with intelligent search, vector databases, and backend architectures was a huge leap — but he handled it with surprising clarity.
Raghavendra’s Contribution
As team lead, Raghavendra took responsibility for the backend, the API development, the integration flow, and even the architectural diagrams.
He didn’t just write code — he directed how the system should work.
He designed the pipeline, handled queries, and ensured the AI responses were accurate and fast.
This experience taught him the importance of leadership, communication, and structural thinking. It wasn’t just about finishing a task — it was about understanding how every piece connects to form a working system.
Outcome & Reflection
By the end of the hackathon, Raghavendra had learned far more than he expected. He gained hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies, understood how vector databases work, and learned how to manage time efficiently in a fast-paced environment.
He came in with limited real-world skills, but he left with the confidence to show his work to recruiters and talk about his contributions with clarity. The hackathon gave him exposure to real engineering problems and helped him identify the challenges he may face in future projects.
His biggest realization was that hackathons offer something unique — they compress months of learning into a single experience and push you to grow faster than you expect.
Student Quote
“Flipr Hackathon gave me real-world exposure and helped me understand how to manage time, work with new technologies, and build a complete project from scratch. It’s the best way to learn cutting-edge tech and push your limits.”
Closing Thoughts
From discovering the event on Telegram to building an AI system for the first time, Raghavendra’s journey at Flipr Hackathon 27.1 shows how much you can grow when you step out of your comfort zone.
He came in curious and unsure.
He left with confidence, clarity, and the experience of leading his first real AI project.
And that’s what Flipr Labs stands for — giving students the environment, tools, and challenges they need to build, learn, and step closer to becoming real-world engineers.
Because sometimes, the best way to grow is to take that first leap — even if you’re not fully ready yet.