Policy Cortex

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  input the policy you want to breakdown

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  see the impacts ,key provisions, supporters

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  tap to see more info

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  a nurse checking how the policy will affect her

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  the results

Inspiration

We were inspired by the impossible task voters face: understanding complex legislation that shapes their lives. We wanted to bridge the gap between dense legal text and true civic engagement.

What it does

Policy Cortex is an AI-powered web app that transforms complex legislation into an interactive visual mind map. Users can also personalize the analysis by entering their occupation and location to see how a policy directly impacts their finances, job, and community.

How we built it

• Frontend: React with TailwindCSS for the interface,
• Backend: Node.js & Express server to handle logic.
• AI: Groq API for analyzing legislative text and generating structured summaries.

Challenges we ran into

Taming the complexity of legal language with AI was our biggest hurdle. Ensuring accurate and consistent JSON output from the API required extensive prompt engineering. Designing an intuitive visualization for dense information was also a significant challenge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We created a tool that is both powerfully analytical and deeply personal. We're proud of building a functional AI pipeline and a stunning visualization that makes civic engagement not just easy, but truly insightful.

What we learned

We learned that the key to democratizing information isn't just simplification—it's making it personally relevant. We also advanced our skills in prompt engineering, data visualization, and connecting complex backend logic to a simple frontend.

What's next for Policy Cortex

We plan to develop a browser extension for real-time analysis on news sites, incorporate real-time campaign finance data, and expand our personalization engine to cover more professions and impacts.

Built With

• express.js
• groq
• node.js
• react