How I’m Building Modi: An AI-Powered Learning Assistant as a Student Developer

Posted on Oct 14 • Originally published at software-portfolio-five-pi.vercel.app

I've always been interested in technology, but I didn't want to spend all my time just learning about what other people were building. I wanted to build something of my own.

That is one of the reasons I started working on Modi, an AI-powered learning assistant within my project, Modupath.

I'm still a student, and I'm still learning. But I wanted to see what I could create if I took an idea seriously and kept working on it.

One thing that made me think differently about learning technology was how difficult it can be for students to get access to AI tools in some learning environments.

I started thinking about what a learning assistant designed with students in mind could look like.

I didn't want it to be just another website with a chat box. I wanted to build something that could bring different learning tools together and give students a useful place to work.

Of course, having an idea is one thing. Actually building it is another.

Working on Modi has taken me beyond simply designing a webpage.

For example, an AI response appearing on a screen is only one part of the experience. There's also the work behind user authentication, saving information, connecting the frontend to the backend, and making sure things work as expected.

I've had to learn that a feature isn't really finished just because it looks good. It needs to work, too.

And when something doesn't work, you have to investigate it, test possible solutions, and keep learning.

I'm still improving Modi, so this is an ongoing process rather than a finished success story.

I created this post because I want to start sharing more of what I build and learn.

Sometimes, when you see software developers online, you mostly see the finished product. You don't always see the learning, debugging, experiments, and changes that happen along the way.

I'm particularly interested in web development, artificial intelligence, and how technology can make learning more useful for students.

I also want to learn from developers who have more experience than I do. There is still a lot I don't know, and I'm fine with that. The important thing is to keep improving.

I want to keep improving the application, make the experience more useful, and learn from feedback.

I'm also working on becoming a better developer, not just building more features. That means paying attention to how software is designed, how it works behind the scenes, and how people actually use it.

If you're interested in seeing what I'm working on, here are a few links:

I'm sharing this as the beginning of my journey on DEV, and I hope to share more practical lessons as I continue building.

If you're a developer, especially someone who's still learning, what's one thing building your own project has taught you that tutorials never did?