In an era where students are surrounded by endless information and unparalleled opportunities to connect, it’s striking that meaningful understanding is often lost. We saw an opportunity to transform passive note-taking into an active, catered process. Our inspiration comes from classrooms where students all hear the same lecture yet walk away with completely different understandings and levels of comprehension. Every student learns differently–we ask different questions, focus on different points, and take notes that reflect our unique perspectives. NoteNest uses AI to turn lectures and videos into clear, concise notes that are catered to each person’s thinking style, while also letting you merge insights with friends, see overlaps, fill each other’s gaps, and build an interactive study experience that makes learning more connected.
NoteNest is an AI-powered social note-taking platform that transforms how students learn and collaborate. It automatically generates organized, high-quality notes from lectures, videos, and articles, allowing users to focus on comprehension rather than transcription. By combining advanced AI with social connectivity, NoteNest turns studying into an interactive and accessible experience.
Students can paste any URL–YouTube videos, Zoom lectures, or articles–and NoteNest instantly extracts key ideas into structured notes using Grok by xAI and Google Gemini. During study, a live Q&A lets you ask context-aware questions where each answer is folded into your notes and used to cater to your unique inquiries. To enhance accessibility, ElevenLabs text-to-speech converts written notes into natural audio so students can listen on the go. When friends study together, NoteNest compiles everyone’s notes into a cohesive, multi-perspective guide–so the final sheet doesn’t just summarize the source, it compounds the group’s personalized questions and insights into one master document.
NoteNest was built with a modern web stack to feel fast, friendly, and reliable. The frontend uses Next.js 16, React 19, and TypeScript, with TailwindCSS v4 and shadcn/ui for accessible components and Lucide React for clean, consistent icons. Our backend runs on Supabase (PostgreSQL), where Row Level Security keeps personal notes private and team spaces scoped correctly. Authentication is handled by Supabase Auth with HTTP-only cookie sessions, a dual client (browser + server) for SSR/API, and Next.js Middleware that guards protected routes and refreshes sessions. Next.js API routes handle ingestion, AI orchestration, and real-time streaming so updates land instantly while you study.
For AI, Grok by xAI generates live notes and Q&A while Google Gemini structures and refines content from videos, transcripts, and articles, and ElevenLabs turns key takeaways into natural, on-the-go audio.
To make understanding deepen over time, questions aren’t just answered–they’re folded back into your outline to clarify concepts, add examples, and resolve confusion. When friends study together, NoteNest compiles everyone’s notes and Q&A into a cohesive, multi-perspective guide with attribution and timestamps. Built on open-source foundations (Next.js, Supabase, TailwindCSS, TypeScript), the platform stays transparent, extensible, and collaborative.
The most prominent challenge we faced was integrating Zoom into our platform. Because we lacked access to Zoom’s RTMS API, creating a connection for live note generation proved difficult. We overcame this by developing an innovative screen-sharing system that replicated the functionality we needed while maintaining a smooth user experience. Another major hurdle was implementing our text-to-speech feature, which required extensive fine-tuning to ensure natural, accessible audio playback so students could learn anytime, anywhere.
Implementing real-time AI processing was also complex. Generating streaming notes as lectures progressed required optimizing API calls, utilizing filtering algorithms, managing rate limits, and keeping latency low for a continuous experience. Similarly, creating an AI system capable of merging notes from multiple users while preserving their unique perspectives demanded careful prompt engineering and iterative testing to achieve balanced, accurate outputs.
Although we faced obstacles, our team remained collaborative and persistent throughout the building process until each feature worked seamlessly and the platform came together as a polished, reliable learning tool.
We’re proud that we built a fully functional, production-ready platform within the hackathon timeframe, complete with authentication, database integration, AI processing, and social features. NoteNest can generate high-quality, structured notes from lectures, videos, and articles in real time, using advanced AI models to summarize content and deliver instant value to students as they learn.
We also developed an AI assistant capable of answering questions and clarifying concepts live, creating a more interactive and personalized learning experience. On top of that, we successfully integrated multiple technologies, including Grok (xAI), Google Gemini, ElevenLabs, and Supabase, which compounded our ability to combine various AI technologies into a cohesive product.
Finally, we’re proud of the platform’s modern, intuitive design and its unique social learning ecosystem. NoteNest not only helps users study more effectively but also connects them through shared curiosity and collaboration and a robust friend system. Ultimately we are proud of NoteNest’s ability to blend academic productivity with community engagement in a way that redefines how students learn together.
Throughout the development of NoteNest, we faced numerous challenges that pushed us to think creatively and problem-solve under pressure. One of the most valuable lessons we learned was finding the right balance between AI assistance and human connection in educational technology. While NoteNest leverages AI to generate high-quality, structured notes, its true strength lies in fostering collaboration, curiosity, and meaningful interactions among students.
From a user experience standpoint, we discovered the importance of designing an interface that encourages participation without overwhelming users. Striking the balance between simplicity and functionality required continuous iteration, feedback, and testing. By understanding the psychology of learning and motivation, we were able to refine our platform to be both intuitive and engaging, ensuring it truly enhances the learning experience.
On a team level, we learned to stay adaptable, ask questions fearlessly, and maintain resilience through every obstacle. These lessons not only helped us maximize our time and technical capabilities but also strengthened our collaboration and problem-solving mindset which are skills we’ll carry forward beyond this hackathon.
Next, we’re expanding NoteNest to become a complete learning companion for every environment. Right now, it helps students create AI-powered notes from online sources like Zoom sessions, YouTube videos, and articles. Our next goal is to support fully in-browser zoom integration via Zoom RTMS and in-person lectures by improving our audio processing pipeline to filter noise and capture clear, accurate notes anywhere.
We’re also planning to make it a mobile app for iOS and Android, along with new AI tools like multi-language transcription, flashcard generation, and practice quizzes. On the social side, we plan to introduce collaborative study groups, shared workspaces, and real-time editing to make learning more interactive. We’ll add gamified features such as badges and study streaks, along with analytics dashboards that show learning progress and focus areas. Our vision is to make NoteNest the go-to platform for collaborative, intelligent, and accessible learning.