ApexPlanner

Landing page introducing ApexPlanner with AI-powered study distribution, burnout detection, and class-based planning features.
Dashboard showing weekly tasks, burnout score, and AI-recommended podcast with quick actions and planner insights.
Full-year calendar view displaying monthly layouts with color-coded assignments across all classes.
Planner input page to upload assignments or add tasks manually and generate an AI-powered study plan.
Weekly task breakdown showing daily assignments by class with focused study sessions and priorities.
Analytics page showing workload trends, subject distribution, burnout patterns, and heavy week risk alerts.
Class management page to add, edit, or organize courses with custom color-coded subjects.
Analytics page showing workload trends, subject distribution, burnout patterns, and heavy week risk alerts.

Inspiration

As students enrolled in multiple AP courses, SAT preparation, and extracurricular commitments, we consistently faced a common challenge: knowing when to begin preparing for assessments. Many students struggle not because they lack ability, but because they misjudge workload distribution and underestimate preparation time.

Traditional planners simply store assignments. They do not analyze them.

We wanted to build a system that goes beyond organization and actively helps students plan strategically to reduce burnout and improve performance.

What It Does

Apex Academic is an AI-powered academic planning system designed specifically for high-achieving students.

The platform allows users to:

Upload planner images
Enter structured assignments
Add and manage multiple classes
Generate a full academic calendar
View weekly workload summaries
Monitor burnout and stress levels
Ask natural-language questions through a voice assistant

Instead of acting as a static calendar, Apex analyzes:

Assessment type (quiz, test, project, SAT practice)
Time remaining until due date
Weekly workload density
Overlapping assignments across subjects

Using this information, the system intelligently distributes preparation sessions. For example:

Quiz review 1–2 days before
Test preparation 3–5 days in advance
Large projects broken into staged milestones
SAT sessions spaced consistently over time

How We Built It

We built Apex Academic using:

React
TypeScript
Vite
Tailwind CSS
ShadCN UI
Framer Motion
OpenAI API (GPT-4o-mini)
Web Speech API
LocalStorage for planner state management

Planner data is stored locally and injected into the AI assistant as contextual information. When users ask questions such as “When should I start studying for my physics test?”, the assistant analyzes the calendar data and provides strategic recommendations.

We also implemented a weighted workload model:

$$ Stress = \sum \frac{Assignment\ Weight}{Days\ Until\ Due} $$

This allows the system to estimate workload density and flag potential burnout risk.

Challenges We Faced

AI Context Integration

Ensuring that the voice assistant provided planner-aware advice instead of generic responses required dynamic context injection and careful prompt design.

Workload Modeling

We developed a weighting system that accounts for assessment type and time-to-deadline decay to approximate real-world academic pressure.

UI Simplification

Balancing a clean interface with advanced features required multiple design iterations to remove unnecessary visual clutter.

Voice and AI Synchronization

Combining real-time speech recognition with asynchronous AI responses required careful state management to maintain responsiveness.

What We Learned

Academic stress is often caused by poor distribution of effort, not lack of discipline.
Intelligent scheduling can significantly reduce burnout risk.
AI becomes substantially more useful when paired with structured contextual data.
Clean interface design improves usability more than feature density.