We Built an AI Voice Assistant for Bangladesh in 6 Hours, Survived API Hell, Nuked Our Own Code, and Still Won 2nd Runner-Up 🏆

By MD. Habibullah Sharif — Assistant Robotics Secretary, NUBCC | CSE Student, Northern University Bangladesh

We had 6 hours. A half-baked idea. A free-tier API that kept dying on us. And at one point — I kid you not — someone ran rm -rf on the wrong folder.

And yet, our team Dreams of X walked out of Impact Dhaka 2026 — Bangladesh's first international AI hackathon — as 2nd Runner-Up among 57 competing teams, held at the iconic ECE Building of BUET.

This is the story of how we built NagrikAI — and nearly destroyed it ourselves in the process.

The Idea That Started It All

Deep in rural Bangladesh — from the haors of Sunamganj to the coastal belts of Bhola — technology often feels like a distant privilege. My grandfather has never typed an email or filled out a web form in his life. But he knows his problems. He has a voice.

What if a simple tap and a spoken sentence in his native dialect could instantly connect him to the right authorities?

That question became NagrikAI: an action-oriented AI voice assistant for civic engagement in Bangladesh. Not a chatbot. Not a form. A lifeline — one that converts spoken Bengali or English into structured, high-priority data that institutions (Police, Hospitals, City Corporations) can act on immediately.

"আমাদের গ্রামে গত তিনদিন ধরে বিদ্যুৎ নেই এবং কলের পানি নষ্ট।"

(Translation: "Our village has had no electricity for three days and the water tap is broken.")

That one sentence, spoken by a villager — NagrikAI turns it into a structured report routed to the right local authority. Automatically.

The Team: Dreams of X

Three CSE students from Northern University Bangladesh, building under pressure.

The Tech Stack

Designed as a sleek, robust MVP in 6 hours:

• 
  Frontend: Next.js (App Router) + Tailwind CSS


• 
  Voice Capture: MediaRecorder Web API → custom AI transcription routes


• 
  NLP Engine: OpenRouter AI API — converts raw transcribed text into structured JSON intents


• 
  Database: SQLite3 — storing Reports, Institutions, and Events locally


• 
  UI/UX: Minimalist glass-like slate interface, built for low-friction usability and high accessibility

The workflow is deceptively simple:

1. 
   Speak — tap mic, say your problem in Bangla or English


2. 
   Understand — AI listens, categorizes, and structures the emotional plea


3. 
   Visualize — a clean confirmation card shows what action is being taken


4. 
   Act — structured data (Priority, Category, Location) flows into the civic database

The Part Where Everything Went Wrong

Let me be honest about the chaos behind the scenes.

Problem 1: API Issues (First 2 Hours)

We planned to use a specific AI API endpoint as our NLP backbone. It worked perfectly in local tests. Then at the hackathon — with real load, real network conditions, and actual time pressure — it started flaking.

Rate limits. Timeouts. Mysterious 500 errors.

We pivoted to OpenRouter mid-session, rewrote our integration layer, and prayed it held up for the demo. It did. Barely.

Problem 2: The rm Incident

Somewhere in the middle of a cleanup script, someone (I won't name names) ran a command that deleted a crucial directory instead of a temp folder.

Panic mode. Git to the rescue — mostly. We lost about 45 minutes of work and had to reconstruct some logic from memory and sheer frustration.

Problem 3: The $18 Overage — Then rm -rf

Near the end, we discovered our API usage had already crossed the free tier — $18 over budget — before we even finished.

And then, in a moment of exhaustion-fueled decision-making, we ran rm -rf on a directory we thought was safe. It was not safe.

Between the rm incident and rm -rf, we basically stress-tested every developer's worst nightmare in a single evening.

We still shipped.

The Demo That Won Judges Over

Despite everything, when demo time came, NagrikAI worked. A user spoke a sentence in Bengali. The AI processed it. A structured civic report appeared — categorized, prioritized, and ready to route.

The judges appreciated the real-world impact angle. Bangladesh has millions of citizens who can't navigate digital bureaucracy. We weren't building another chatbot — we were building a bridge between rural voices and institutional action.

Our key differentiator: We didn't waste time with conversational back-and-forth. NagrikAI takes one spoken sentence and converts it directly into an actionable civic data structure. No friction. No forms. No English required.

The Result

Out of 57 competing teams from universities across Bangladesh, Dreams of X secured 2nd Runner-Up at Impact Dhaka 2026, organized by Cognisor AI, under the theme "AI for Urban Transformation".

As part of the award, the top 3 teams get the opportunity to work with Japan's tech startup ecosystem, including platforms like Sushi Tech Tokyo 2026.

A team of three CSE students from Northern University Bangladesh — on an international stage.

What I Learned

On the technical side:

• Always have an API fallback plan. OpenRouter saved us.


• Test your shell scripts before running them anywhere near your project directory.


• SQLite is underrated for hackathon MVPs — fast to set up, no configuration, works offline.


• The MediaRecorder Web API is surprisingly powerful for voice capture in the browser.

On the human side:

• Pressure reveals character. Our team didn't panic — we adapted.


• A clear, emotionally resonant problem statement matters as much as the code.


• "Ship something that works" beats "perfect something that doesn't exist."

On civic tech:

• Technology built for underserved communities — not just about them — is where real impact lives.

The Project

🔗 GitHub: NagrikAI-Voice — Impact Dhaka 2026

⚠️ Note: This is a competition MVP. The code is shared for reference. Please do not clone for commercial use without permission.

Media & Official Recognition

Our win was covered by national media and officially recognized by our university:

• 📰 BD Pratidin (National News): আন্তর্জাতিক এআই হ্যাকাথনে 'ড্রিমস অব এক্স' দল দ্বিতীয় রানার-আপ
  


• 🏫 Northern University Bangladesh (Official Notice): NUB Student Team Runner-Up in International AI Hackathon
  


• 📣 NUBCC Official Facebook: Community Announcement Post
  

Find Me Online

I'm always happy to connect with fellow builders, civic tech enthusiasts, and anyone interested in AI for social good:

• 🐙 GitHub: github.com/md8-habibullah
  


• ✍️ Dev.to: dev.to/md8_habibullah
  


• 💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/md-habibullahs
  


• 🐦 Twitter/X: x.com/md8_habibullah
  


• 📘 Facebook: facebook.com/md8.habibullah
  


• 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/md8.habibullah
  


• 🌐 Website: habibullah.devWebsite: * habibullah.dev
  

To Every Developer Who's Ever Panicked at a Hackathon

You're not alone. API failures, accidental deletions, overbudget calls — these are the real stories behind every polished demo. The difference between winning and losing isn't perfection. It's resilience.

Build things that matter. Keep pushing.

— by Habibullah