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March 1st, 2025 @ San Jose, CA

BISV Hacks 2025

Let's build a better world, one hack at a time.

Event Ended Devpost
9
Hours
70+
Hackers
5
Judges

About BISV Hacks 2025

What is BISV Hacks?

BISV Hacks 2025 marked our inaugural hackathon, bringing together over 70 passionate students from across the Bay Area. Held on March 1st, 2025, at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley, the event was a tremendous success that showcased the incredible talent and creativity of our participants.

Theme & Focus

The theme of our hackathon was to address issues of social justice and promote social good, which challenged participants to create innovative solutions addressing real-world problems. Throughout the day, students worked tirelessly on projects ranging from environmental sustainability to educational technology.

Experience & Learning

Participants had access to mentorship from industry professionals, engaging workshops, and networking opportunities. The event featured guest speakers from leading tech companies who shared their insights and experiences with the innovators.

BISV Hacks Event
BISV Hacks 2025

Event Schedule

March 1, 2025

8:00 AM

Hacking Starts

Registration & Sign-in

12:00 PM

Lunch Break

Talks by Guest Speakers

1:00 PM

Hackathon Resumes

Back to coding and building

5:00 PM

Hackathon Ends

Submission Deadline on Devpost

Our Sponsors

Sponsors ✨

Stellar Learning

Fiscal Sponsor 🏦

Hack Club

Venue Sponsors 🏫

BASIS Independent Silicon Valley Stratford Schools

Thank you to our amazing sponsors who make BISV Hacks possible!

Guest Speakers & Judges

Nicolas Bievre

Nicolas Bievre

Judge & Guest Speaker

Nicolas Bievre is a Machine Learning Engineer at Meta with over seven years of industry and research experience in machine learning, recommender systems, and generative AI, with applications in digital advertising, personalization, and bioinformatics. After graduating from Stanford University and Ecole Centrale Paris where he contributed to the field through peer-reviewed research published in leading AI and bioinformatics journals, he then joined the industry to enhance his expertise in large-scale ML-based recommender systems at AI-leading companies such as Meta, PayPal, Google, and Amazon.

Akash Sahoo

Akash Sahoo

Judge & Guest Speaker

Akash Sahoo has a decade of industry expertise in AI, Speech, Computer Vision, and Robotics. He has co-founded three startups and is currently focused on developing large-scale Speech-to-Text models and advancing reasoning capabilities in Large Language Models at Samsung Research America. In his free time, he enjoys hiking and participating in hackathons on weekends.

Karan Kumar Ratra

Karan Kumar Ratra

Judge

Karan Kumar Ratra is an innovative E-Commerce Systems Architect and Technology Leader specializing in Retail Technology Innovation. With over 15 years of experience in industries like Telecom, FinTech, and E-Commerce, Karan has a proven track record of architecting large-scale systems and fostering innovation. He currently serves as an Engineering Leader at Walmart, where his work drives advancements in fulfillment systems and e-commerce technology. Recognized globally, Karan is a LinkedIn Top Voice in Software Design, Engineering Management, and Systems Design, a Top 1% ADPList Mentor, and an award-winning technology expert with numerous accolades, including Walmart's Impact Award. Beyond his professional achievements, he actively mentors young engineers and contributes as a judge and mentor at prestigious hackathons like HackMIT, CalHacks, and HackPrinceton.

Pulkit Goel

Pulkit Goel

Judge

Pulkit Goel is a seasoned technology professional with over 17 years of experience, specializing in advertising technology (Ad Tech). Throughout his career, he has worked at industry leaders like Yahoo and Activision Blizzard, as well as several startups, where he played a key role in building and scaling high-impact platforms that serve millions of users worldwide. With a passion for problem-solving and mentorship, Pulkit loves sharing his knowledge and helping others grow in the ever-evolving world of technology.

Seetaram Rayarao

Seetaram Rayarao

Guest Speaker

Seetaram Rayarao is a Senior Vice President and Tech Lead at JPMorgan Chase in Delaware. He brings over 17 years of experience in AI-driven solutions, cloud computing, and microservices architecture. Recently, he led the development of our LLM Suite application—a cloud-based AI platform integrating Large Language Models and Retrieval Augmented Generation. This platform delivers real-time, context-aware insights to more than 200,000 developers across the firm, significantly enhancing productivity, compliance, and security.

2025 Winners

Elora

🏆 FIRST PLACE

A revolutionary brainwave-powered emotion tracking system using EEG technology to help people understand their emotions without words. Using the Muse S Gen 2 headset, Elora analyzes brain activity in real-time, providing AI-powered visualization of emotional states and personalized coping strategies, particularly beneficial for veterans and those who struggle with verbal expression.

Team: Elora Team

Bias News Detector

🥈 SECOND PLACE

An AI-powered tool that identifies and analyzes bias in news articles and media content, helping readers make informed decisions about their information sources through advanced natural language processing and transparent bias analysis.

Team: FND

Pocket Therapy

🥉 THIRD PLACE

An accessible mental health platform combining AI-powered facial emotion detection with a therapeutic chatbot. Features include “The Garden,” a calming virtual space with relaxation tools, making mental health support available to those who may not have access to traditional therapy services.

Team: Pocket Therapy Team

Meet the Team

Charan Sridhar

Charan Sridhar

Chief Organizer

Charan Sridhar is a senior attending BASIS Independent Silicon Valley who is passionate about computer science. Charan's life goal is to use computer science to ensure improved quality of life and equality for everyone, especially marginalized communities. He founded and leads the Data Science and Machine Learning Club at his school and used this club as a platform to start this hackathon, the first at BASIS.

Luke Song

Luke Song

Associate Chief Organizer

An avid coding enthusiast, Luke Song is a senior at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley who loves turning ideas into reality. Having helped create teaching materials for Charan's Data Science Club, Luke is now helping him organize the first hackathon at BISV. In his free time, you can find him hiking, reading novels, or working on coding and research projects designed to make lives easier for everyone.

Nitai Goswami

Nitai Goswami

Technology Lead & Organizer

Nitai Goswami is a sophomore at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley who has been interested in artifical intelligence since 7th grade. He has, over the years, learned about machine learning, neural networks, large language models, and he strives to learn more. He is also the technology officer for Charan's Data Science Club and now one of the organizers of this hackathon. Outside of school, he learns more about AI and plays basketball.

Anderson Lu

Anderson Lu

Marketing Lead & Organizer

Anderson Lu is a sophomore at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley who has been actively engaged in computer science for over five years. He works with image processing in the machine learning field and has experience in making websites. In his free time, he plays basketball and strives increase his knowledge in machine learning.

Nicholas Wang

Nicholas Wang

Organizer

Nicholas Wang is a junior at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley who has been coding since 6th grade and enjoys exploring technology and building projects. He works with a variety of tools and frameworks, including Svelte, TailwindCSS, Python, and Flask, among others. Nicholas likes experimenting with AI tools, APIs, and creative coding projects. He is also the founder of Stellar, an AI-powered platform aimed at providing free, engaging education. In his free time, he enjoys building websites, learning new technologies, and participating in hackathons.

Redger Xu

Redger Xu

Organizer

Redger Xu is a senior at Stratford Preparatory Blackford and the president of the Hackathon club at his school. Here at BISV Hacks, Redger leads the sponorship and financial processes. Outside of school, Redger likes to dive deep into random topics on the Internet and play tennis.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Let's Connect

Have questions? We'd love to hear from you!

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Email Us

bisvhackathon@gmail.com
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Follow Us

@bisv.hacks
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