In the spirit of vibe coding and building something useful without overthinking it, I recently created a lightweight AI-powered web app called ResearchAI Assistant. Doing a lot of my masters dissertation and having to deal with a ton of papers and research, I decided to vibe code something that will be helpful to me if built upon.
It helps researchers, students, and professionals transform complex academic papers into accessible content like slide decks, podcasts, summaries, and visuals—all in just a few clicks.
The front end for this project was already largely built out by a user on v0. I added integrations and UI later on to fit into the project scope.
Why I Built This
Academic writing is rich in insight but often dense and hard to share with non-specialists. I wanted a tool that could make research more approachable and engaging, especially for those who need the insights but don’t have time to parse 40+ page papers.
So, I vibe coded this as a weekend project, powered by Supabase for authentication and storage, and a clean UI with responsive pages that feel modern and inviting. It also has the AI aspect running on Grok AI. It’s an idea-first build, not overly polished, but super functional—perfect for demos, hackathons, or real-world use.
Key Features
Here’s what the app currently does:
- 🔁 Transform Papers into Multiple Formats
- 📊 Interactive Slides – Turn technical content into slide presentations with just a paste/upload.
- 🎙️ Podcast Scripts – Generate AI-narrated audio scripts from research papers.
- 📄 Executive Summaries – Extract key points into short, digestible formats for stakeholders.
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📈 Visual Infographics – Create simplified visual content and diagrams.
- 📤 Upload or Paste Research
Supports PDF, DOC, DOCX, and TXT files (max 10MB).
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Paste content directly for on-the-fly analysis.
- 🔐 Secure Auth with Supabase
Users must confirm their email before signing in.
- Email link confirmation workflow is built in for account protection.
How The App Works
Sign up and verify your email
The app sends you a confirmation email (handled via Supabase Auth).
Upload or paste your paper
You can drag and drop a document or paste the content directly into the textarea.
Choose a content format
Whether it’s slides, a podcast script, or a summary—you just click a button.Preview and Download
After processing, you can preview the output or download it for sharing or presentation.
🧠 Behind the Scenes
- Frontend: Built with React and styled for a dark theme that’s sleek and professional.
- Backend: Authentication and database powered by Supabase.
- AI Logic: Content analysis and transformation powered by Grok AI. (I left the actual AI integrations open for future upgrades.)
📸 Screenshots
Here are a few views from the app:
- 📄 Upload Page Drag-and-drop or paste your document.
- ✅ Analysis Complete Shows estimated reading time, complexity, and key insights.
- 📊 Examples Page Real-world samples: Machine Learning, Climate Policy, Quantum Computing, and more.
- Dynamic Sign-Up page
🔗 Try It Yourself
This is a fun, weekend side project, so feel free to fork it, play with it, or even extend it with other AI models like OpenAI or Claude.
👉 GitHub: github.com/Dumebii/research-assistant
Final Thoughts
This wasn’t about building a “perfect” product—it was about vibing with a useful idea and turning it into a live, testable prototype. If you're a student, researcher, or builder who loves experimenting with AI and interfaces, this is a fun project to explore.
I should also add that I vibe wrote this article. I gathered all the data I need for the article, including screenshots, key points, and relevant links. I fed it into an LLM, and it came up with an article draft, which I went ahead to modify.
The idea is that if I can vibe code an entire app, why can't I vibe write an article draft?
Got feedback or feature ideas? Drop a comment!
Love this vibe-coded approach! Would be super cool if the podcast feature could generate actual audio files for mobile listening - any plans for that?