Shopping in stores can be a hassle, especially when you forget an item and have to crisscross the aisles. Pacific computer science major Samuel Wan ’25 and his team set out to solve this at Cal Hacks 2024 in San Francisco.

Cal Hacks, run by University of California, Berkeley students and now in its 11th year, bills itself as the world’s largest collegiate hackathon. These types of computer science competitions challenge student teams to create a product in a scant 36 hours. 

Wan worked alongside Sarah Akhtar ’26, Nathan Ho ’24 and graduate student Venkata Ranga Ramanuja K. Chaitanya Kamduri, who also goes by Krishna, to create an app called Tool Assisted Shopping, which took first place in the Best Web App category. 

The app works like this: Users give it their shopping list and identify a particular Target store location. The app then maps the most efficient route around the store. Behind that user interface lies a very interesting application of coding and artificial intelligence. 

AI — which has surged in prominence since ChatGPT’s release in late 2022 — was one of the main themes of this year’s Cal Hacks, which received support from major players in the tech industry. Although AI was just one tool in the team’s arsenal, Wan is proud of his team’s implementation of it, using Google Gemini to “translate” specific items into a location which the app can use to make its path.  

Creating in a high-pressure environment is challenging enough, but this was also Wan’s first hackathon. Thanks to Pacific’s Google Developer Student Club (GDSC), which introduced him to the event and organized two teams to compete, Wan found himself paired with teammates he’d never met before — adding even more unknowns to the experience.

“It was very interesting because I don’t know what I’m getting into,” Wan said, later adding, “My attitude going in was, I just want to build something I’m proud of and not focus too much on the other teams … I guess that strategy worked out pretty well.”

This year’s Cal Hacks took place in the Metreon shopping and entertainment center in San Francisco from October 18-20. All the contestants worked in one giant room for 36 hours.

Akhtar oversaw the development of the team’s iPhone app. Wan and Ho worked on the web app and Kamduri coordinated the presentation to the judges. 

Since their win at Cal Hacks, the team has continued working on their app and has already added a Google sign-in system to improve usability. They’re also considering submitting their project to Y Combinator, a company that helps fund early-stage startups, for support so they can further the app’s development.

Long term, the team would like to bring TAS to a broad audience on the App Store and the Google Play Store. There’s a lot of work ahead for them, and the teams says they couldn’t have made it this far without the support of Pacific faculty members.

“We are incredibly proud to represent University of the Pacific and to be the first team from our institution to win at Cal Hacks,” Akhtar said. “This achievement is a testament to Pacific’s commitment to fostering technological innovation, cultivating creative minds and supporting student excellence.”