Second Place at JunctionX Junior in Prizren

From 21–23 May 2026 I took part in the JunctionX Junior Hackathon hosted at ITP Prizren. My team and I finished in 2nd place with our project, SproutSync.

The Project: SproutSync

SproutSync is an AI-powered web application built to modernise and simplify plant monitoring. Most plant-care apps stop at a species lookup and a watering reminder. We wanted the full picture — smart software, artificial intelligence, and hardware we designed and built entirely ourselves.

That last part is what made the project. We didn't only develop the software; we designed the sensors and their physical structure too, which meant the demo wasn't a mockup. It read real plants, through real sensors, in real time.

What It Does

Users can scan a plant to identify its species, detect whether it is healthy or unhealthy, receive diagnostics and insights about its condition, and monitor watering levels and light exposure through our custom sensors.

Training the Model

The most exciting part for me was manually training our AI model so the plant analysis came back accurate rather than confidently wrong. Getting a model to reliably tell a thirsty plant from a sick one is much harder than it sounds, and it taught me more about data quality than any tutorial has.

What I Took From It

Our goal was to replace the plant-care apps people already use by offering everything they provide and more — and for a weekend project, we got closer to that than I expected. Full credit to my team for the focus, patience and teamwork under pressure; turning an idea into a fully working product in three days only happens when everyone holds their part.

Huge thanks to the organisers, mentors, and everyone involved in making this event possible.