AwardsOctober 2026
Two wins for Vitamin Bob
In October, four of us at Carnegie Mellon built Vitamin Bob in 24 hours. It won the World Bank Group's Health track, then the whole of Hack-Nation's global hackathon. Next, I'm presenting it at the World Bank's summit in Seoul.
The wins
Hack-Nation · 14 Oct 2026Grand winner7th Global AI HackathonFirst overall, out of 3,000+ builders and five challenges, after a live final.
World Bank Group · 6 Oct 2026Winner, Health trackSmall AI for DevelopmentSmall AI for basic phones and local languages, judged across 150+ countries. The prize: a talk in Seoul.
How it works
4.6 billion people still can't get basic health care. In villages, patients travel far and wait, and the clinic hears their story only when they arrive. Vitamin Bob starts care with a phone call instead.
01Kevin rings once and hangs up. It costs him nothing.
- Works on any phone, with no app and no internet.
- Free for the patient, in Hindi or Gujarati.
- The AI prepares the visit. A clinician makes the decision.
My part
On the team I was AI & Backend · LLM & Product Engineer. I built:
- Bob's AI and backend: the call, the on-device model (Gemma 4) and the routing to care.
- The safety net: the AI only fills a form, and anything it can't back up is asked again.
- The phone gateway, the live dashboard and the website.
- On-device LLMs
- Backend
- Product engineering
- AI for health
With Egshiglen Batjargal, Rizaldy Al Kautsar Utomo and Yusril Hana.
The journey
Pictures from Seoul, 19 to 22 Oct to come.