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Samarth Shiramshetty, who earned his M.S. in management information systems from Northern Illinois University (NIU), College of Business has been awarded the Grand Prize in Education at Stanford University’s TreeHacks competition for HiveMind concept of his team.
“HiveMind was born from a simple yet powerful idea: How can we support students who are struggling silently during virtual learning?” Shiramshetty said. “At hackathons, my team and I kept seeing the same issue — students weren’t engaging or getting the help they needed online. We envisioned HiveMind as a collaborative AI platform that integrates with tools like Zoom to assess students’ understanding in real time using quizzes, transcriptions and AI-powered insights.”
Based on performance, this tool groups students into peer nodes for personalized learning and support. Apart from Zoom, HiveMind also integrates OpenAI and Perplexity’s API for building, and it includes new technology, such as deploying AI agents.
“The whole project was about building cognitive intelligence and learning from it,” he said. “Winning the Grand Prize in Education at TreeHacks validated the importance of this problem and our approach to solving it. Moving forward, we want to continue developing HiveMind to support hybrid learning environments, incorporate advanced analytics and, eventually, make it available to schools and universities around the world.”
The TreeHacks Education Grand Prize focuses on projects that leverage technology to enhance learning experiences, improve educational access, or increase student engagement. This prize celebrates projects that aim to redefine how people learn, connect and grow, creating more inclusive and accessible learning environments, according to Zoom. The winner received $1,000 cash, four pairs of Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses and four Marine Layer Zoom Hoodies.
“It was surreal [to win the grand prize,]” Shiramshetty shared. “Being recognized at Stanford, competing against some of the brightest minds from top universities, and having our work acknowledged by Zoom, OpenAI and other industry leaders was an emotional and humbling experience. It felt like a tribute to all the years of hard work, the all-nighters and the belief that education can and should be more inclusive and intelligent.”
Growing up in Hyderabad, India, Shiramshetty was a part of a close-knit community where curiosity and creativity were always encouraged. From a young age, he was fascinated by how things worked, especially computers.
“I’ve had the chance to work with amazing people in my life,” he said. “I got an opportunity to work for Accenture as a software engineer and worked closely with Microsoft, which was great exposure.”
He also did an internship for Webacy and Episensor before pursuing his M.S. in MIS at NIU’s College of Business.
