abhishek.vulla

Abhishek Vulla

building things people actually use

i like building things that solve problems i actually have, then shipping them before they feel ready.

my first was a Chrome extension because SUTD's deadline system drove me crazy. 50+ students use it now. that somehow turned into 8 hackathon podiums, university pilots and two signed SME LOIs, all in my first year.

Abhishek Vulla in a suit
Build for Impact 2026Champion130+ builders · S$9,500UCWS Singapore 2026Top 20 Finalist800+ participants · US$10K+ in prizesSup Build20261st Runner-Up300+ builders · S$5K+ in prizesNUS Maritime Hackathon 20262nd Runner-Up670+ participants · S$2,000PyCon Singapore 2026Top 3OpenAI-backed · S$2K+ in prizesMicrosoft Learn, Hack and Fun1st placeMicrosoft Singapore strategy pitch3x Baby Shark FundS$6K build fundingLearnLoop, Rankr and StowFeatured by SUTDLearnLoopDesign.AI newsletterDell InnovateDash 2026Top 5 FinalistYoda hardware companionNTU Deep Learning Week 2026Top 10 Finalist1,000+ builders

Selected work

AI study infrastructure

LearnLoop

An AI study layer inside SUTD's learning platform. It answers from approved course material and keeps the exact source slide beside every response.

40 studentspiloted across two classrooms
  • S$2,000university build funding
  • S$7K test waivedafter redesigning the trust boundary

Passed SUTD EduTech's first cybersecurity review by moving students behind LTI 1.3 and EASE SSO, removing public signup and reducing Blackboard access to least privilege.

Open LearnLoop Read the security story
1 / 5
Product demoA walkthrough of the source-grounded tutor and handwritten submission flow.
  1. Product demo: A walkthrough of the source-grounded tutor and handwritten submission flow.
  2. SUTD newsletter: SUTD Design.AI featured the classroom pilot in its March 2026 newsletter.
  3. Tutor: The tutor keeps the answer and its source slide in the same view.
  4. Interactive lesson: Course concepts can open into an interactive simulation without leaving the study flow.
  5. Cohort analytics: Instructors can see the concepts a cohort is struggling with instead of reading isolated chat logs.

SEO research system

Rankr

An AI SEO agent for Singapore SMEs that finds demand and competitor gaps, drafts from real audience questions and helps businesses show up on Google.

2 signed LOIsfrom Singapore SMEs
  • Top 20 of 800+UCWS participants
  • US$10,000OpenAI credits awarded at UCWS

Our checker gave Lullaflex scores between 93 and 100. Google still ignored it. That failure changed what Rankr measures.

Try the checker Read my engineering note
1 / 6
Product demoRankr researches competitor gaps, drafts the useful page and waits for approval before publishing.
  1. Product demo: Rankr researches competitor gaps, drafts the useful page and waits for approval before publishing.
  2. ChatGPT citation: The low-authority Lullaflex testbed earned a real citation from ChatGPT.
  3. UCWS pitch: Rankr reached the Top 20 from more than 800 UCWS participants.
  4. UCWS finalist: Rankr reached the Top 20 from more than 800 UCWS participants.
  5. SME benchmark: The benchmark compares 42 responding sites by sector instead of hiding them behind one score.
  6. Live testbed tool: The live testbed included a real planner because useful tools earn links and citations that commodity articles do not.

Launch video pipeline

Proof

Proof reads a GitHub repo, finds a story worth telling and turns it into a script you can record from a teleprompter. It then cuts the take, adds captions and motion graphics, and exports a vertical video.

1st Runner-Up'Sup Build2026 · 300+ builders · S$5K+ in prizes
  • Invite-only betarunning at tryproof.org
  • 20% faster rendersafter load-testing the safe concurrency limit

Proof checks three frames from every generated scene. If text clips, copy breaks or a graphic covers the speaker, it patches that scene and renders it again.

Open Proof beta
1 / 4
Rendered outputA finished 61-second output with timed captions and graphics kept clear of the face.
  1. Rendered output: A finished 61-second output with timed captions and graphics kept clear of the face.
  2. Product walkthrough: The walkthrough shows repository analysis, the generated brief and the guided recording flow.
  3. 1st Runner-Up: Proof placed 1st Runner-Up at 'Sup Build2026 among more than 300 builders.
  4. Render pipeline: Repository research, recording, Whisper timing, graphics and vision review stay as inspectable stages.

Desktop AI tutor

Clicky for Windows

Hold a shortcut and ask about anything on screen. Clicky talks you through it and draws directly over the app to show exactly where to look or click.

100+ installsWindows app
  • Top 3OpenAI-backed PyCon SG
  • S$2K+in prizes

Capture, transcription and provider setup now overlap, while the overlay stays responsive through slow devices and network calls.

View source Read the latency story
1 / 5
DemoHold the shortcut, ask a question and get an explanation over the app already on screen.
  1. Demo: Hold the shortcut, ask a question and get an explanation over the app already on screen.
  2. Architecture: Independent capture, audio and provider work overlaps before the final answer is painted.
  3. Knowledge map: The Obsidian graph makes app-specific context visible instead of burying it in an opaque database.
  4. Provider settings: Provider choices are explicit and API keys stay in Windows Credential Manager.
  5. PyCon Top 3: Top 3 at the OpenAI-backed PyCon Singapore 2026 Hackathon, with S$2K+ in prizes.

Student utility

SUTD Deadline Centre

A local-first Chrome extension that pulls SUTD deadlines into one sortable list and exports them to a calendar.

50+ studentsweekly users
  • 5.0 ratingon the Chrome Web Store
  • Local onlyno backend or student-data collection

The extension reads the LMS a student already has access to, then keeps course data in the browser instead of building another account system.

Chrome Web Store
SUTD Deadline Centre Chrome Web Store banner
1 / 5
Chrome Web StoreThe public Chrome Web Store listing is the clearest proof that students can install and use it.
  1. Chrome Web Store: The public Chrome Web Store listing is the clearest proof that students can install and use it.
  2. Demo: A short walkthrough of collecting, sorting and exporting deadlines from both LMS platforms.
  3. Two LMS sources: eDimension and Gradescope deadlines land in one sortable view without another login.
  4. Calendar export: One export moves the current course deadlines into a personal calendar.
  5. Course filters: Course and status filters keep the weekly view compact.

Hackathons

1 / 4
ChampionChampion at Build for Impact 2026 and S$9,500 in prize money.
  1. Champion: Champion at Build for Impact 2026 and S$9,500 in prize money.
  2. Final pitch: Pitching the playable build at SGInnovate.
  3. 3D game: The shipped run loop ties movement to story progress.
  4. Champion certificate: The Build for Impact 2026 champion certificate.

Build for Impact 2026

SpillTeaLeh

ChampionS$9,500 prize from a field of 130+ builders.

A 3D running game that unlocks pieces of a Singapore-flavoured story as the player moves through the city.

Play Watch demo Read the one-email story
1 / 4
Final pitchPresenting the verified fleet strategy to the judges at NUS.
  1. Final pitch: Presenting the verified fleet strategy to the judges at NUS.
  2. Judges: The model assumptions and validation held up in the final judging round.
  3. 2nd Runner-Up: 2nd Runner-Up from 176 teams at the 2026 Maritime Hackathon.
  4. Cost model: Ownership was the dominant cost lever in the supplied fleet dataset.

NUS Maritime Hackathon 2026

Floatware

2nd Runner-UpTop 3 of 176 teams, S$2,000 prize.

A fleet model that found ownership accounted for 76.5% of cost, then used 16 independent checks to catch a S$256,000 error.

Read the 16-check story
1 / 2
Winning teamThe 1st-place team after the Microsoft Learn strategy pitch.
  1. Winning team: The 1st-place team after the Microsoft Learn strategy pitch.
  2. 1st place: 1st place for a plan designed to activate 20,000 new learners.

Microsoft strategy pitch

Microsoft Learn, Hack and Fun

1st placeA plan for activating 20,000 new learners.

The PilotBot concept turned course discovery into a guided first session instead of another campaign landing page. I was later selected as a Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador.

Writing

View all writing

More work

Yoda team with the working companion prototype at Dell Technologies

Hardware + agent systems

Yoda

Top 5 at Dell InnovateDash. The build spanned firmware, a tool-calling agent, a caregiver approval layer and parametric CAD.

GitHub See gallery
SafeEdge end-to-end system demo

Computer vision

SafeEdge

The second vision path could stop a false alarm before the system escalated it.

GitHub See gallery
Early Stow demo showing a generated 3D truck load

Fleet operations

Stow

Piloting with PTC Logistics after its Group CIO reviewed the working demo. Backed by the S$2,000 SUTD Baby Shark Fund.

Open cockpit See gallery

Education

BEng Computer Science & Design (CSD)

Sep 2025 to May 2029

Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)

Undergraduate Merit Scholar · Technology & Entrepreneurship Programme (USTEP), 1 of 20 selected from a cohort of 580

CBSE Class XII

2025

Al Khor International School

100/100 Computer Science · 96.2% overall · top 1.5% worldwide

About

I care about the part after the demo.

most of what i build starts with something that bothered me enough to fix. SUTD deadlines were split across two sites, so i made the extension i wanted. Clicky came from walking a non-technical student through GitHub over a call, where telling him where to click wasn't working. Proof came from what i kept dodging after five hackathon projects in one month: i was never going to sit down and market any of them myself.