Please tell us about a time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.
I hacked the traditional campus marketing system by turning myself into a walking billboard for my app, Orbit. I wore a giant QR code linking to our Discord server across campus every day for weeks: https://photos.app.goo.gl/V2BrX1nzapNhVq7RA
This is just the start of me finding ways to hack the system to spread Orbit (as long as it aligns with my morals and My Values)
List any relevant or impressive test scores
I’ve always prioritized building meaningful things over memorizing what won’t stick. Even while juggling a full course load, building and promoting Orbit, and creating content across all major platforms, I’ve maintained a 3.7 GPA.
Last semester, I studied for my finals the day of—because I was busy editing this video (https://youtu.be/b2o1ycm6WYQ) and running interviews—yet still got an A in the toughest CS course at my university: Design and Analysis of Algorithms (CPSC 413).
Please tell us in one or two sentences about the most impressive thing that you have built or achieved
Overcame limiting habits like social anxiety and developed systems for focus, self-awareness, and resilience. Had to learn so much about myself and do a lot of work to break out of those patterns, but it has been incredibly rewarding.
It was through that struggle I am able to live a life that I truly enjoy and do work that I deeply found meaning in. It also indirectly led me to start working on Orbit.
Just a few weeks ago, I felt a deep sense of self-actualization as I was building and announcing Orbit to the world and getting people excited about it through my YouTube videos (e.g. https://youtu.be/Yv-JSa8N_qU)
Tell us about things you’ve built before. For example apps you’ve built, websites, open source contributions. Include URLs if possible
From the hackathon projects to the long-term side projects, you can find them all on my GitHub profile: https://github.com/psycho-baller
For over a year, I’ve been working on using technology to reduce the barrier to human connection. I started off with building an app called Exo (https://getexo.vercel.app/ | https://github.com/psycho-baller/exo) that helps people have better conversations with anyone but specifically with their partners and friends. But nine months ago, I moved on to building another app (https://www.linkedin.com/company/getorbitapp) that aims to fight loneliness in university. I have spent over 700 hours in the IDE building these two apps and around a 100 hours researching, designing, validating, etc…
Here are some links that can give you a good idea on what it is:
I even presented to my class where I go in detail on the technical details of how to do the same thing in their apps: https://youtu.be/godPwohVsBg
This is also something I experimented with in my most recent hackathon: https://devpost.com/software/orbit-w84iq1 where I used AI Agents and several integrations to help people find the perfect person to meet up with
Using realtime location tracking to help you find someone you can talk to at any point. We are thinking of what is the best way to execute this idea. We tried to do that 6 months ago but we ended up deleting the code and pivot. But we might go back to the idea in the coming months since we now have a better idea on how to execute that plan while maintaining user’s privacy and battery drainage (from location tracking)
For now we’re going to focus on the AI side.
I am carefully navigating this space since I know very well that I am navigating the tarpit idea space. I am making sure that I don’t let my beliefs and assumptions of what the world needs push me to work on the product. I am currently in a place where I am exploring different ideas and trying to get validation for them before moving forward with them. I have learned the hard way that continuously pivoting and refactoring is very time-consuming and mentally draining.
As I take things slow for Orbit, I am mainly spending my time leveraging the latest AI Agent-building tools like CrewAI, DAIN, Fetch.AI, Trigger.dev, Letta, n8n, SimStudio.
I am a true believer of the importance of spending your time on the right things. I always like to remind myself that “In x years, I will wish that I was now years old”
This belief motivates me to work on leveraging technology to empower people to save time and focus on what truly matters to them. This could involve creating AI-powered tools that automate repetitive tasks, allowing people to dedicate more time and attention to their personal passions and connections with others.
Lately, I’ve been using n8n and a self-hosted virtual Linux machine (synced with my local files via https://syncthing.net/) to automate several things to save me mental energy and make it easy for me to do the things that matter to me most. Like writing for YouTube videos and blog posts or programming. I am doing that by creating automation tools that lower the barrier to starting and make the process faster, smoother, and more enjoyable
These automation tools also help me extract the most value from my database of knowledge that I have created over the past few years. You can find that in here: https://notes.rami-maalouf.tech
There is so much content that I have forgotten or haven’t realized its value. But by giving a self-hosted AI model access to your notes. It’s like an assistant who remembers every note you have written over the years and brings you back related content whenever you need it.
I am able to do that through a combination of several AI & automation tools including n8n, vector database, Obsidian, syncthing.
I will be creating a YouTube video once I flesh it out and refine the whole process so that it’s easily replicable on any machine (since I’m using a VM on the cloud)
So this is what I’m currently focusing on. But over the past few years, I have built several apps, websites, and browser extensions.
I automated the process of looking for research participation opportunities by sending an email to customers as soon as new opportunities come out for them
SnipTube empowers you to effortlessly highlight, tag, annotate, and export the most captivating parts of your favorite YouTube videos (we call these snips). Plus, with the magic of AI, it generates summaries for these snips, making it a breeze to revisit.
spent 250+ hours building and learning how to build this full-stack, AI-powered browser extension available on all major browsers.
List any competitions/awards you have won, or papers you’ve published
A space for Calgary’s youth to explore their curiosity and turn ideas into action. We hold weekly meetings at the heart of downtown in a place owned by several entrepreneurs (https://www.instagram.com/house_831/)