Sopra Steria International Student Challenge – Blog Interview with the German Winning Team

When Prav, Mario, and Estanislao first met at university in Germany, they quickly discovered a shared passion for technology and innovation. This connection led them to form Neuraucity, the team that proudly represented Germany at the Sopra Steria International Student Challenge.

The International Student Challenge is a competition that brings together students from our different geographies to develop innovative solutions for real-world challenges. This year’s edition focused on sustainable AI, with each team working on a socially impactful project that was pitched to an international jury in Madrid and supported by mentors from our company.

With their AI-powered project Schülerly, they set out to revolutionize how teachers support their students. In this interview, the team shares insights into their experience, the challenges they overcame, and how participating in the International Student Challenge has inspired their future career ambitions.

Hi Prav, Mario & Estanislao! Could you briefly introduce yourselves?

Prav: Of course! Our team is called Neuraucity and it’s made up of three members: Mario, who is from Ecuador, Estanislao from Argentina, and myself, from India. We all chose to pursue our studies in Germany, as it is renowned for its excellence in engineering and computer sciences. Germany offers a world-class education while remaining relatively affordable for students, which made it an easy decision for us.

Estanislao: We met during a university class and quickly realized we shared the same passion for technology and programming. That’s why we decided to team up for this competition. Having a team with like-minded people is crucial — it made collaborating and coordinating our project so much easier.

What motivated you to participate in the International Student Challenge?

Mario: The three of us, having worked on personal tech projects before, felt ready to take on a bigger challenge. When we discovered the scope of the competition, the networking opportunities, and the chance to travel to Madrid, we couldn’t resist applying. The attractive prizes and Sopra Steria’s strong reputation definitely added to our motivation.

What is your project about, and what problem does it aim to solve?

Prav: Our project is called Schülerly. It’s an AI powered Learning Management System (LMS) which acts as a teacher’s copilot. School teachers have a lot of tasks to accomplish within a tight deadline, which can impact both their well-being and the quality of education they provide. Other platforms do not use AI in an innovative way to truly save a teacher’s time. With Schülerly, teachers can create personalized assignments, learning materials, quizzes, and generate advanced reports with just a few clicks.

Estanislao: With the help of current LLM technologies like GPT, Claude or Deepseek, it generates personalized content to provide individual care and support to every student. We believe this would highly decrease the amount of time the teacher spends on repetitive tasks, while not feeling like their job is being replaced, which is a balance we strongly believe must exist with the rise of AI powered applications.

Mario: To support sustainability and social responsibility, we wanted to ensure the app was accessible to all demographics. This focus led to the development of several unique features that might not have been included otherwise.

How did you approach developing your solution? What were the biggest challenges along the way?

Prav: Luckily, we all have strong backgrounds in web development. Mario and I worked mainly on the front-end and back-end, while Estanislao focused on the UI, course planning, and query systems. One of the biggest challenges was efficiently generating high-quality learning materials. We used prompt engineering to produce drafts in LaTeX, converted them into PDFs, and made it presentable. It was very tricky to figure out a way to do all these tasks while not taking too much time.

What was your personal highlight during the challenge?

Mario: Our personal highlights were the countless nights we spent working on the project and presentation. It was extremely exciting. We honestly didn’t expect to make it past the first round, so learning that we had qualified was an amazing surprise! Competing in the finals in Hamburg was another huge highlight.

What key takeaways did you gain from this challenge for your future careers?

 Estanislao: Collaboration, embracing feedback, and the importance of iterating on ideas were major lessons for us. We also gained a lot of confidence presenting our ideas and stepping outside our comfort zones. This experience even inspired us to pursue a career in IT consulting. We’re considering continuing to develop Schülerly as a personal project and, if all goes well, maybe launch it to the word or pitch it to potential investors. Overall, we would love to keep working on AI-driven content generation, which we believe will be very valuable in the future.

It was great to have you represent us in Madrid!